Millions and millions of euros were apparently handed out by the Greek foreign ministry in 2010 while former prime minister George Papandreou was suffocating the Greek people by slashing pensions and salaries with bloody austerity measures as a cause of the memorandums he signed with the Troika. According to the Sunday edition of "To Paron Tis Kyriakis" the number of Non-Governmental Organizations (NGOs) climbed to 431 by 2010 and has over the last decade handed out some 115,388,814 euros (or about four billion drachmas) of state funds.
George had a plan and it was called "NGOs".
"La Greek NGO" is the brainchild of George Papandreou. NGOs began when Papandreou became foreign minister and started to fund various organizations, associates and relatives exorbitant and without any transparency, according to a separate report on the same subject on the AntiNews website. The report claims that over the last decade our ambassadors abroad have been asked to report on the activities of all these foreign NGOs and how they have used the money the state funded them but our ambassadors always replied that they had no ability to check their credibility.
The obvious question would be which names are behind the NGOs funded by Papandreou? Believe it or not they are usually personalities that are very close to Papandreou, even his own mother! In the corresponding list
of NGOs also stands his mother's (Margaret Papandreou) organization
(KEDE) The Centre for Research and Action for Peace.
Legal? Yes. But is it morally and ethically right? It remains to be seen.
Most of the money, claims the article on AntiNews, was handed out in 2003, or a total amount of
approximately 18,095,076 dollars when Papandreou was acting Minister of
Foreign Affairs under the Simitis government.
Other close friends or acquaintances include his adviser while he has been President of PASOK, Julia Dimitriadis, as well as his former adviser Gregory Valianatou (who recently admitted that the George Soros foundation was also funding one of his organizations), Mr. Alex Rondos who we all know has been rallying for the division of the Aegean Sea and was also adviser to Papandreou, former PASOK minister Haris Pamboukis and his friend Spyros Flogaitis, a former journalist for the "Tsevelelou" publication by the name of Costas Tzevelekou, Papandreou's friend and former chairman of the Federation of Industries of Northern Greece Mr. Nikos Efthimiadis, the present Mayor of Thessaloniki for PASOK Mr. John Boutaris, and PASOK Eurodeputy Maria Damanaki .... as well as many, many others says the article in "AntiNews".
It doesn't take a rocket scientist to realize that most of the names are from Papandreou's close environment, or part of his political strategy group of friends and one can easily conclude that the NGOs represented by these people seem to have played an important role in his rise in the political system as well.
When Margret Papandreou said twelve years ago that her son was going to become Prime Minister of Greece, some smiled and said that every mother always wants the best for her children and therefore most ignored this statement. Several years later when she was reported to have said that the dynasty or name of Papandreou should be used to raise money, some brushed it off again, but from what it seems like the family had a plan. Eventually Margaret and George Papandreou's plan worked!
It needs to be noted that most of the NGOs that are coming under scrutiny are not on the up and up as well as the causes they serve and many in Greece are saying that those who stand behind these organizations are shady individuals who influence events and situations.
In any case, the issue is now being investigated by a parliamentary group. The evidence that will surface will surely be interesting.