The President of PASOK-Movement for Change, Nikos Androulakis, gave an interview to STAR of Central Greece on Friday evening ahead of the new election.

Speaking to journalist Giorgos Simopoulos about the stakes of the June 25 ballot, Nikos Androulakis noted that “a strong PASOK creates another condition in the political system. The Greek people can choose based on the hope for better days and not the fear that the worst will come. Because for me, this mechanism prevailed in the May 21 elections. Although New Democracy made tragic mistakes in this four-year period in health matters, in the green transition, it widened inequalities and serious corruption issues were recorded – we saw, for example, what happened to Mr. Patsis, with the wiretapping, a huge scandal that exposed internationally country-, instead of falling, rose. So my point is that it went up because people feared the worst. A strong PASOK stops the prevalence of fear. And we are entering an era of a solid, reliable opposition, which will put a barrier to all these phenomena that we have seen in recent years.”

“We have a strategic goal: To make the Democratic Progressive Party a strong pole against conservation again. We have a modern program for a competitive productive base, with many good jobs, a strong welfare state, health, education, social housing for young couples, dealing with demographics. And of course, a very crucial element is our credibility in national matters. The democratic world of the country can rest on these pillars and stop being held hostage by the leadership of SYRIZA, which acted as a “golden sponsor”. Let’s re-unite our anxieties in this new effort so that the New Democracy of Mr. Mitsotakis has a genuine and strong opponent. This is my anxiety. Our struggle has no ceiling. It is a struggle that started with young people, with clean faces, with a clean speech, concrete, objective, progressive, without populism, without relations with strong economic interests, with political autonomy” added Mr. Androulakis.

Regarding the immigrant-refugee issue, he emphasized: “The Evros fence is a measure so that Turkey cannot wage a hybrid war by using these people as tools. When you have borders with many countries and a very long coastline, of course you need border guards, Frontex, an upgrade of the Dublin Regulation so that it is not the country of first admission that is burdened with the granting of asylum, but the border of the European Union. I disagree with the celebrations of the New Democracy for the proposal of the Council, which says about 30,000 relocations in all the states of Europe, when there were 960,000 applications. They are making fun of us and Mr. Mitsotakis is celebrating.”

“The responsible minister must say publicly what Greece did to prevent this tragedy, so that we do not become the target of international media, but also internally, so that there are no misinterpretations and poisonous insinuations that target our country,” he noted when asked about the many deaths shipwreck off Pylos.

“It is unimaginable the adventurous management done by New Democracy and SYRIZA in the last few days. In my opinion, Ms Bakoyannis and Mr Skertsos owe the Greek people an apology for the vile statements they made. And SYRIZA owes its two MPs a public declaration that they respect the Treaty of Lausanne, which resolves all these issues, as MPs of the Greek Parliament. They should explain why they didn’t vote for the way the Mufti was elected,” he commented on the public debate on Thrace.

He criticized the conscious deconstruction of the National Health System by the Government of New Democracy.

“We were third European-wide in private spending on health. Greeks no longer go to the National Health System, but turn to the private sector. But lately, looking at the data again, our position has worsened. We are second, that is, we became worse than Lithuania. Only in Bulgaria and Greece are the people burdened with such costs for their health in the private sector. This shows the inadequacy, the ineptitude, the lack of will to support the NHS. We counter-propose a strong primary health network throughout Greece based on European best practices. The salaries of health workers should approach the average of the European Union and of course their inclusion in the heavy and unhealthy ones. All this leads to the rebirth of the NHS. The discrediting of the NHS is one of the leading problems of Greek society” pointed out Mr. Androulakis.

Asked about the high cost of energy for households, businesses and farmers, the President of PASOK-Movement for Change emphasized: “Greece went through this crisis worse than other European states, because we have a huge dependence on imported natural gas, something we did not have in past due to lignite. What are we saying? De-lignification must be linked to investments in grid and storage. Because this is how breeders, processors, farmers, cooperatives, municipalities, communities can make small solar and wind farms, so that the green transition is not a business plan of only five powerful.

In short-term measures I include market control. The Greek people paid billions in subsidies because we have an uncontrolled market. We must put rules in its operation for the benefit of production and the consumer. The jungle market undermines the struggle of the producer and his sacrifices, undermines the consumer and strengthens the powerful”.

Referring to the Government’s economic policy, Mr. Androulakis underlined: “What brought an increase in revenue is the price increases, because the more the cost of a product increases, the more VAT and excise duty the state collects. That is why we have 5 billion more than the budgeted revenue for the last two years. Therefore, the argument of the New Republic that claims that it reduced tax rates and the profit for the economy was 7 billion, because at the same time it took 5 billion in two years from the middle class and the most vulnerable, is also refuted.

We insist that the VAT on basic goods – at least for the duration of the crisis – should be reduced, in order to de-escalate the prices of products that concern the poorest Greeks. We are talking about progressive taxation everywhere with more scales, about a fairer tax system, which enables the middle class and the poor to pay less, to have more opportunities, more justice. As social democrats we have other priorities than those of Mr. Mitsotakis and it is an insult to PASOK to say that SYRIZA is making the same proposals. Because SYRIZA, through the insurance contributions, had hit freelancers, employees. We have no such policy. We are talking about reducing social security contributions in order to have less “black” work. We propose a tax reduction for the family with two children. So we are talking about a completely different model.”