“This is how the ND decided to start its so-called “non-toxic” pre-election campaign”, declares the head of the Transparency department of SYRIZA-PS, Yannis Ragousisresponding to a government publication and announcement regarding a loan case from OEK.

“The government with the 12 million euro individual loans of the prime minister and ministers, as well as with the obscure individual arrangements of these loans, knocked on the wrong door”, he notes and mentions that “with today’s publication of the newspaper “Political”, as well as the relevant announcement of the ND, all they prove is just their desperation”.

“Cheap distractions. Unsuccessful offsets” he comments and argues that “they are trying to bring back for the umpteenth time an issue that has already seen the light of day so many times”.

“This effort, which is the swan song of the most corrupt post-colonial government, will not go unanswered. My out-of-court statement will be immediately communicated to the newspaper in question, with which the immediate restoration of the truth will be requested. Otherwise – as I did again in the past on the same issue – the courts will have the say. The same, of course, will apply to all the slanderers, members of the ND”, he emphasizes and explains that “the truth is the following”:

“This property is located in a mountainous non-tourist village of my place of origin and is 50% owned by me and 50% by the mother of my 3 children. Only part of it was erected with a loan from OEK. I did not receive this loan, but my ex-wife. He received it in 2007, during the then government of New Democracy. This loan, based on the law, was granted without any income criteria at all to three-child beneficiaries of the OEK as an incentive for the exercise of the country’s demographic policy”.

Continuing, G. Ragousis states: “It was about a specific loan that could be received by all the beneficiaries and therefore whoever received it, did not deprive someone else of it. The aforementioned loan was repaid with a one-time payment of the remaining amount (instead of its interest-free 25-year repayment) as provided for in the relevant law for all beneficiaries of the aforementioned loans without exception. That is, there was absolutely no individual regulation of it, as government officials have learned to do with their own loans. Since 2014, the property in question has been my permanent family home during the winter months, while during the tourist months I rent it out for livelihood reasons and to raise my children with dignity.”

“We are not the same. I do not have “unspecified” deposits or offshore companies, such as ministers and officials of the outgoing government”, he underlines, emphasizing: “all the sums I receive from the short-term rental of my house flow exclusively into my declared bank accounts and are declared as the current legislation provides, in my E3 statement, until the last euro!”.

“Finally, and not to be in vain, my slander with gross lies does not scare me and will not stop me from carrying out my duties as the head of Transparency SYRIZA-Progressive Alliance and in the disclosure of the real cases of government corruption”, concludes the statement of G. Ragousi.