I agree with what the central banker Giannis Stournaras said that the Greek economy does not live up to all these pre-election announcements, said the president of PASOK – KINAL, Nikos Androulakis in an interview with SKAI 100.3 and journalist Pavlos Tsimas.

On the one hand, we have SYRIZA, which offers hares and petrels, and now we also have the blue SYRIZA, which offers incredible things, said Mr. Androulakis, referring to the ND’s pre-election announcements

Speaking about the economy, he said that the government has the narrative that it is doing well and has more to offer. But the economy is not doing well, the debt remains the largest in Europe, said Mr. Androulakis.

He added that the GDP is not qualitative, it is based on the increase in exports, but the increase in imports is also overwhelming.

“The ND government has created the feeling of a development with internal loans, it threw a lot of money into the pandemic, it should have given less” he said and went on to say that “many refundable advances became deposits”.

Characteristically he said: “From where and how can someone who has an airbnb get a refundable deposit?”.

He went on to say that all this shows that ND and SYRIZA are unrepentant in respect of public spending. “And Stournaras took too long to say it,” characteristically said Mr. Androulakis.

He emphasized that wage labor should be supported, undeclared work should be suppressed and we should speak in terms of social reality: “The prime minister is attacking the OECD, while a pro-European is playing it,” he said.

He pointed out that we should have a difference in the taxation of a family with children and a family without children.

Responding to criticism that PASOK is closer to SYRIZA, he said that just because he criticizes does not mean he is close to Mr. Tsipras, whom he said he thinks “the economy is a cow that gives milk without feeding it.”

Criticizing the declarations of Mitsotakis about salary increases he said, “How shall this be done? By royal decree? How will this thing be done practically?’

Commenting on Alexis Tsipras’s position in the debate on the fence issue yesterday, he said that the president of SYRIZA made a big turn: “They said otherwise for so many years”. And he continued: “Once Mr. Tsipras sees the political costs, he will dump them for the political benefits.”

Mr. Androulakis repeated that “the Greek people cannot pay so much money for the protection of the European borders, we cannot give so many billions in equipment, the Europeans must also put money into guarding the borders”.

In addition, he criticized Alexis Tsipras, saying that “he is used to placing himself lightly on issues, and he does the same with national issues.”

The interceptions

Referring to the Prime Minister’s statement yesterday about wiretapping, commented that for the first time Mr. Mitsotakis says he knows the reason for the surveillance, since he said it was not done for reasons of national security.

“Did justice hear this? Tell us now why Mrs. Vlachou signed for my monitoring. I have confidence in the Greek justice system. What the prime minister said makes things easier. Mrs. Vlachou and Mr. Kontoleon must apologize because I was monitored.”

When asked if responsibility should also be attributed to the Prime Minister, Mr. Androulakis replied: “The Greek judiciary must say whether the Prime Minister is criminally responsible. Justice must do its work without interruption, unlike the commissions of inquiry that did not do it because of the obstacles put up by the government”.

He also called on those who played political games “to apologize to me and my faction for what they said was that we were playing the role of agents. The Right had this in its DNA before the post-revolutionary period.”

When asked if he has bitterness from the wiretapping case, he replied that he has bitterness, not personal, but because I cannot believe that in my country, a country with European values, in 2023 the secret services were operating in this way. Everything that happened is outside of European culture. I want my country to be a normal European country that will not be exposed abroad for such vile practices.”

Post-election partnerships

When asked about the possibility of post-election collaborations, he attacked Kyriakos Mitsotakis, saying that “in an unacceptable and contemptuous way, he is distorting the facts, for a month he has been launching that I have a plan to find things with Varoufakis. Remember who it was who together with Mr. Tsipras voted to bankrupt the country in 2010. And this man, whose sister even voted with George Papandreou to save the country, is coming to give me lessons in realism?”

He went on to say that Alexis Tsipras may have created a school of contempt for common sense, but that does not lessen the weight of Mr. Mitsotakis’ populism. We have populism with a tie and populism without a tie” as he characteristically said.

Referring to the tragedy of Tempe, he said that the prime minister has a duty to say “which MP did the bribery and took an unrelated person and made him a station master. Let’s stop despising the people.”

He added that in many critical moments both Mr. Mitsotakis and Mr. Tsipras “were on the wrong side of history because they put their personal political careers first. I say that I have nothing to do with these attitudes.”

When asked what he will do when he receives it investigative order after the election he replied: “I have a plan. For me, the German model is the compass of the future. Autocratic governments lead to institutional decline.”

For program convergences he said he has a 12-point plan with “red lines”, that there needs to be a wider consensus and that he will call the parties programmatically.

When asked with whom it is easier to govern, he answered that “a strong PASOK will be a barrier to what we have been living in recent years, PASOK has a value code and does not play with the quality of democracy, it stands in the way of practices we have seen in recent times”.