“Quality of life is not what New Democracy and Mr. Mitsotakis offer. Quality of life is not having public hospitals in a dire state. Quality of life is not having expensive private education and public universities declining. Quality of life is not low-quality and expensive means of public transport. Quality of life is not that basic goods have increased by 30% and some insist that the market is self-regulating,” pointed out the President of PASOK-Movement for Change, Nikos, in an interview on One Channel on Tuesday evening Androulakis highlighting ineffective government policies.

Nikos Androulakis says “yes” to the political dialogue with executives from the New Left and SYRIZA, but not with Mr. Kasselakis, describing his goals for the national elections with a crucial “station”, that of the European elections.

He also added “I will not open the doors to the adventurers, who went for the chairs in SYRIZA”.

He launched a fierce attack both on Andreas Loverdos, who announced the founding of a party, and on Evi Christofilopoulou, who announced her accession to ND.

“It’s not the first time he’s made a party,” he said of Andreas Loverdos and added: “Whatever the political satellites of Mr. Mitsotakis do will not prevent PASOK from becoming the official opposition.

Referring to the purchase of American F35 fighter jets, Mr. Androulakis noted that “Greece is getting the F35s, it got the frigates, it is buying expensive equipment. Do we need to buy expensive equipment? We need to buy some to be a country with a strong deterrent force, especially when we live next door to such turmoil. But, finally, there needs to be a serious discussion in Greece. How far do we go fiscally? We voted for the agreement with the French, we supported the agreements to strengthen the country’s defense with the US. But we have to there will be a discussion about what and how much we need and whether there will always be a philosophy according to which because Turkey wants to become a regional power, we will follow suit by sacrificing billions from the welfare state and the country’s infrastructure” .

He added that strengthening European defense is a priority for him. “When I talk about an arms embargo on Turkey, and at the same time there should be a central policy with a European army as a complementary force to NATO, I say it because it is the only way to be sure that on the Greek-Turkish border there will be alongside the Greek army, – in any scenario-, and European strength to face any such challenge”.

Against the background of the farmers’ mobilizations, the President of PASOK-Movement of Change highlighted the government’s backslidings, which exacerbated the problems of the agricultural world.
“Four presidents have changed in OPEKEPE and four ministers have changed. The planning was not done yesterday and New Democracy is responsible. 500 million euros less entered the farmers’ accounts from the direct aid payments” noted Mr. Androulakis and wondered if “we are ready to adapt ELGA to today’s conditions, or will we let these people, due to increased production costs, climatic conditions and natural disasters, due to the fact that New Democracy made a mess of ELGA and OPEKEPE, leave production?”

Regarding the bill for same-sex couples, Mr. Androulakis said that “the majority of our MPs will support it. Whatever questions and concerns there are, we try to approach them in a rational way. However, it cannot be an anxious effort from the New Democracy to transfer its problem to PASOK. When the cohabitation agreement on SYRIZA came, 19 of the 75 MPs of the New Democracy voted, have we forgotten? Are they now going to teach us human rights lessons? And with calculations they are trying to hide that the Minister of State , Mr. Voridis, is talking about the unconstitutionality of the law? A cabinet was formed, the prime minister brought the bill but his right-hand man is talking about an unconstitutional law and the former prime minister is against it. We are talking about an absurdity here.”

Regarding the occupations of university schools, Mr. Androulakis emphasized: “I am the first to say that occupations cannot take place, especially with small minorities without democratic legitimacy, undermining the struggle of the students themselves for better public education. But we do not want to identify the few who do wrong actions with robbers and criminals. If there are such complaints, the police come in. If there are hoodlums who extorted students, the chancellorship must call the police. They formed the university police, the Greek people spent hundreds of thousands of euros and it failed absolutely because, as I said from the beginning, this does not exist in any European state”.

Asked about the establishment of non-state non-profit universities, the President of PASOK-Movement for Change underlined: “I believe that, as in every European country, we must have strong public universities, which are aimed at 90% of pupils and students and that there should also be some non-state non-profits. Students who did not succeed in the national exams should be able to access them, and to attract students from abroad. Of course, they should be based on academic and geographical criteria. That is, a high-level offer of knowledge and based on geographical criteria, why not everything can be in Athens”.

Referring to the housing crisis, Mr. Androulakis repeated his proposal for the abolition of the Golden Visa in real estate.
“Mr. Mitsotakis did not come to the Parliament. He evades because he knows his enormous and criminal responsibilities. All serious European states used the Golden Visa to ignite the construction sector. But as soon as they saw that this story is over and inequalities widen, the abolished. Let’s abolish the Golden Visa,” he stressed.
“I invite him – also from your show – to come to Parliament. He did not come in September. I have resubmitted the question, enriched with new evidence. He has a duty to come to Parliament. We will give consent publicly to a program of social housing on the model of Spain and Portugal If the government enters into a dialogue with PASOK, we will agree on the abolition of the Golden Visa, restrictions on AirBnB, a pool of social housing, – with new buildings and the opening of closed apartments with tax incentives, which will enter the pool of low rents for more than 10 years – we are ready to consent and offer solutions to the Greek people in the face of the housing crisis,” said Mr. Androulakis.

Regarding the tragedy in Tempi and what is happening in the commission of inquiry, Mr. Androulakis stressed: “Wiretapping scandal, no one pays. In the crime of Tempi 57 people lost their lives, yet again no one pays? How will the citizens trust the politics, justice, when in such a tragedy some want to cover up their responsibilities?”.