By Yannis Anifantis

“I had no institutional status. The organization was not under my responsibility, I never exerted pressure, gave an order or interfered with the Administration to do any illegal act”the former Secretary General of the Ministry of Rural Development argued in his testimony, George Stratakosclarifying that he never pressured his former President OKAYVangelis Simandrakos in order to release the VAT numbers of G. Xylouris (s.s. Frapes).

“I accepted his question, why is the check (of the TINs) not completed. When there is an audit process it must be completed with a timetable. He didn’t have an answer to that and I put it to Simandrakos without ever getting a timeline, without ever getting an answer.”emphasized Mr. Stratakos, repeating that “never received any harassment” from the Maximos Palace for payments. Answering questions from the rapporteur of New Democracy, Makarios Lazaridis, about the style of his conversations, which saw the light of day – and are included in the case file – he stated that they did not match “neither from an aesthetic nor an ethical point of view” to secretary general. “I never position myself like that in public discourse. I adjust my speech according to my interlocutor. I’ve always developed a rapport with all the producers, it’s a matter of character”argued Giorgos Stratakos.

In fact, commenting on the content of his conversations with G. Xylouris, the former General Secretary pointed out that he did not take “Frape”‘s words seriously.

“Dialogue is excessive in the context of management, to vent a situation of a person who is in a state of rage, constantly complaining”said Mr. Stratakos with PASOK MP Milena Apostolaki making special reference to the dialogue where “Frapes” claims that if he killed Ms. Tycheropoulou now he would be out. “Mr. Xylouris kept saying different things. I didn’t take most of what he said seriously. I didn’t think he was serious.”he emphasized.