The exit from the memorandum was certain, but the lenders “kicked” for 900 million euros, former Prime Minister Antonis Samaras pointed out on Friday in the discussion with the director of Kathimerini Alexis Papachelas, in the context of the conference “Transcolonization: 50 years later”.

“Do you have the feeling that at some point when SYRIZA was coming and maybe our lenders legitimately thought that this would happen, they pulled the plug on you?” Alexis Papachelas asked the former prime minister.

I am convinced that it was certain that we were coming out of the memorandum completely, in February 2015 instead of June 2016. The case was 900 million euros. And for 900 million euros they “kicked” said Mr. Samaras characteristically.

Because they realized that Kouvelis would not vote for president, and since we could not get a president, Tsipras would come, as the polls said Tsipras. And they did not want to give me in advance the release from the memoranda and the money.

So that Tsipras, having these, will not be able to command them for what they would ask for. I say this very bluntly, but this is true.

Samaras: There was not a single easy day at Maximos

With Evangelos Venizelos, there was never a day when we finished before midnight. Midnight was early.

We always felt the threat, that “you’re out, we won’t pay your bonds.” It was very difficult that there was a construction difficulty in a country that lives with a memorandum.

I was talking to a member of the troika and explaining to him that his argument was wrong, in every way. “Yes, but I’ve crossed the line.”

Who was “above the troika”?. Barroso. Nothing was happening. Who was higher than Barroso? Get Schäuble? Take the Americans?
Therefore, I had the problem that if I did not agree with the troika, it is nobody’s door to knock on as prime minister. But when you don’t have a single day to lose, because the loan payment day is coming, what are you going to do? That’s why we worked tirelessly.

“We will stay in the eurozone and do what we have to do”

“I am with Stournara, with Merkel and we are talking for the first time. As the conversation ends, Merkel pulls me into her office and shows me some slides. “All this shows that it is very difficult for Greece to get by. I have to suggest that you leave the eurozone”, Merkel told me. I stopped her and told her we are not having this conversation. We will stay and do what we have to do.”

For Konstantinos Karamanlis and Andreas Papandreou

• Karamanlis was of the few and the expensive.
• I had the opportunity to meet Papandreou because we were roommates in America.
• “Kon tells me. Mitsotakis “go and inform Papandreou and Florakis”. Florakis and I talked about other issues. Papandreou, who had just returned from his operation, says to me: “I want you to tell me all the articles”. I was stung by the fact that he agrees with everything. I informed the president, I went to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

After a while, I learned that he was “throwing” them to me on the radio. He had the ease of adapting to what was politically useful to him.”

The story of his first speech in the Parliament and the phrase of Karamanlis

“The big scene takes place where Karamanlis enters the debate on the Budget in the Parliament. The Minister of Finance could not come to speak, so I was called to the podium. I had a track, I go down, sit down, Karamanlis nods at me and asks me: “Was it your debut?”. Then he claps my hands and says: “You did great”.

For Postcolonization:

• There was a dream in each of us.
• My own dream was to be able to help the homeland in what Karamanlis asked for, namely unity and stability.
• As a member of parliament, I also worked a lot for the country.
• It was a given that you had to help anyone who had a problem.
• Luck also plays a role in the selection of any MP.

Samaras on Bakoyannis: “Why do you ask for the consent of others since you are the government?”

Mr. Samaras stood up for Greek-Turkish, saying that the dialogue is always fruitful and positive. However, he added that “the word consensus with all three parties and within the government smacks of capitulation rather than consensus on national issues.” “Why do you ask for the consent of others when you are the government?” he wondered in a clarifying question by Mr. Papachelas about his report, in relation to what Mrs. Dora Bakoyannis had said in a previous panel.

Samaras for Macedonian

• The three conditions in 1991 were also accepted by the Council of Ministers and I received congratulations from Andreas Papandreou and of course from my faction and then all three conditions were accepted by the council of political leaders, with only dissent from the KKE.
• What was accepted by all, eventually collapsed.
• I said this thing cannot be solved.
• We think that with “Prespes” the issue has been resolved, while in essence it remains in terms of the “Macedonianness” for the Bulgarians of their language.
• This raises the issue of Skopje’s entry or intention to enter the EU. from Bulgaria.
• The matter, therefore, is not over.
• It has not been realized that the region of Albania, Kosovo and Tetovo are now Albanian regions.
• Gruevski had at some point asked to be granted Bulgarian citizenship.
• This case, therefore, has not ended.

For Greek-Turkish

– Dialogue is always something fruitful and positive.

-However, when I hear the word consensus with all three parties and within the government, this smells of capitulation and not consensus, and I mean on national issues.