Veteran right-wing supporters of the New Democracy party on Thursday released a non-paper in the framework of vindicating former premier Costas Karamanlis for the policies his government adopted in the period 2007-2009, and which were recently publically criticized by Finance Minister Yiannis Stournaras. The document based its information and data from a book that was published three years ago by the former Minister of Finance John Papathanasiou.
Political circles claim that this intervention from the "Karamanlikoi", or the supporters of Costas Karamanlis, apparently has the approval of the former premier, but this cannot be confirmed and to be quite frank it is highly doubtful because if the former PM wanted to make a statement, he would never manipulate third parties to do it. It is probably just the frustration of thousands of supporters who still hold the former premier in high regard. What can be confirmed, however, is that veteran New Democracy supporters (most of which have always supported the Karamanlis family) are at odds end with Yiannis Stournaras. Aside from publishing the true figures for the period under review, it is believed that ND supporters also wanted to send a message to the present leadership of the conservative party to better defend and support its past policies.
In their "Manifesto" the "Karamanlikoi" insist that the greatest failure of deficit reduction was experienced during George Papandreou's term in government. Indeed, Papandreou did not only adopt immediate measures, says the lengthy Manifesto, as he had pledged to do, but instead increased deficits despite Karamanlis' warnings at the Thessaloniki Trade Fair in September 2009.
Why The Numbers Speak For Themselves
The non-paper notes that George Papandreou -who was the leader of the main opposition PASOK party at the time- is deeply responsible for the present mess, because in March 2009 he did not want to find a consensus with the government, simply because he was fixated on toppling the Karamanlis government. During that period, Karamanlis held a series of meetings with all party leaders, including Papandreou, in the framework of agreeing on a six-principle financial management plan to safeguard the economy. Papandreou, as we all know, rejected the plan and the rest is financial history.
The "Karamanlikoi" also blame the mainstream media for opposing the plan as well.
Another thing that is interesting to point out is that when the Papandreou government took over it "consciously --and suspiciously- spent roughly 10 billion in the last quarter of 2009".
The aim, say the supporters of Karamanlis, was to inflate the deficit to 12.7% and then simply discredit the New Democracy party. The veteran supporters of the conservative party are convinced that Papandreou's team did this so it can set the groundwork to reduce it effortlessly the following year but of course as we all know, things got out of control and it boomeranged on them.
The Manifesto also underlines that immediately after the 2009 elections, when the government of PASOK announced that the deficit was at 12.7% (a number which incidentally was never based on actual and formal statistics) Papandreou's team had also included expenses in the final tally which were never even conducted. For instance, some 2.2 billion Euros were suposed to be paid back to health care, but the Papandreou government only paid back 1.2 billion Euros. The same type of measure was noted in various defense expenses as well.
The "Karamanlikoi" admit that they should have been more alert in the first nine months of 2009, when tax revenues collapsed thus exploding the deficit. And they note that the conservative party should have been more responsible. But what people do not know -and still deny accepting- is that the economic chaos and climate that was forming during that period against Greece, was a result of a methodical and paradoxical economic attack against our country. What is even more absurd, adds the Manifesto, is that the Troika keeps on claiming that Greece will once again become a healthy economy by 2020 when it reaches a deficit of 120%, which is the same level that Karamanlis left it at 2009!
The Manifesto is 100% political, and not personal, and only has one aim and one aim only... which is to wipe away the mud that was thrown by Mr. Stournaras -intentionally or unintentionally- towards the side of Mr. Karamanlis.
The Manifesto is 100% political, and not personal, and only has one aim and one aim only... which is to wipe away the mud that was thrown by Mr. Stournaras -intentionally or unintentionally- towards the side of Mr. Karamanlis.
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