The president of PASOK and candidate for the presidency of the party, Nikos Androulakis, made a severe criticism of the Mitsotakis government, speaking late this evening at a gathering in the amphitheater of the House of Pontic Hellenism in Kozani. Mr. Androulakis, referring to the prime minister and the possibility of claiming another new term, emphasized that “all of you citizens can send him home for the disastrous years of governance and the many lost opportunities for the country”. Referring to the Prime Minister’s letter on energy matters to Ursula von der Leyen, he said that “the President of the EU will make a collection of the Mitsotakis letters and that they have the same weight as the letters of Jesus that Velopoulos is selling to the Greek people” calling prime minister to “not underestimate the intelligence of the Greek people”.

Mr. Androulakis, referring to development issues, noted that in Greece the paradox is that there is destruction even in areas where there is development which, as he mentioned, is cut and sewn for the powerful, giving as an example tourism with the millions of arrivals to its islands Aegean where only the few and ordinary citizens gain absolutely nothing.

On energy issues, he explained that “PASOK’s program is clear, it says no to the country’s commitment to renewable energy” and “it supports RES without giving priority, as Mr. Mitsotakis does, to the oligarchs, but by facilitating processors, municipalities and Cooperatives”. He was in favor of de-lignitization by creating investments in infrastructure, networks and energy storage, emphasizing that these should be done “for the benefit of society and not the big and powerful who are currently ravaging RES with the result that, come rain or snow, they make billions creating oligopoly in energy”.

He made a special reference to the Banks, recalling that “while they were recapitalized in the last decade with Greek taxpayers’ money, today they have the biggest difference in lending rates and deposit rates in all of Europe, we have overcharges everywhere and even though we raised the matter with the Competition Commission, the latter imposed a fine on them only 41 million euros when their profits reach 3 billion euros.” In support of what he said, he cited official data from ELSTAT where salaries in Greece are among the worst in Europe since “they are in 26th place while at the same time the profits of businesses are in third place among EU countries”. And he asked himself saying “in which country in Europe is there this decline in inequalities?”

On the subject of Health, he stated that “Greek citizens pay out of their own pockets the most money in Europe of 27, together with Bulgaria, for private health expenses. “Where a structure or service of the NHS collapses, a private Health structure is created next to it” said Mr. Androulakis reminding that “77% of the private health services in Greece have only two private interests”.

Referring to the issues of his party, he stated that “the expansion for the great Center-Left is not going to be done by the adventurers who became ministers of ND and SYRIZA and now that their political future is in jeopardy they are looking again at PASOK”. The great PASOK will only take place with an autonomous course with political dignity and responsibility”, he concluded. Nikos Androulakis, addressing his friends and members of his party, stated that today he symbolically submitted the signatures of the members for his candidacy from the offices of the local PASOK Organization of Aianis Kozani, which functioned for the first time in 1974. “I assure you that new organizations of of our party are being created in every corner of Greece”, he noted.

Concluding his speech, he called on the members of his party to trust his person and the political choices made during his term, where after 13 years areas of Greece were greened again. “Today, PASOK in all of Greece except Athens is in second place” noted Mr. Androulakis stressing that “a little more patience is needed to become a governing party” recalling at the same time that it took the party’s historic leader 7 years to win the SW.