The interview of Deputy Minister to the Prime Minister Thanasis Kontogeorgis on ERTnews radio 105.8 began with the scenarios of early voting. As he said, “in order to have early elections, our Constitution requires a national reason and in the current situation, apart from the fact that there is no such reason, there is also a condition that you cannot ignore: you do not know what is going to happen every day on the international level. Every week of prolonging the conflict in Iran means a deterioration of the global economy and, obviously, that can have a significant impact on both growth and inflation.”
And towards the end of the interview, Th. Kontogeorgis had the opportunity to state that “the cap especially on food may need to be extended beyond June 30, depending on how inflationary pressures develop, as a consequence of what is happening in Iran,”
But, as he explained, “if the crisis is prolonged and worsens, we have said that there will certainly have to be decisions at the European level. Broad, strong decisions that will enable Member States to respond to a crisis whose consequences could be quite significant for European economies. We are not there yet, there is no unanimity on this. Everybody is moving somewhat conservatively.”
In any case, he insisted, “we are interested in avoiding a second wave of inflation. That is the objective of what we are doing with transport costs.” And he concluded his response by saying that “obviously if we have another condition, we’ll see what more can be done in that regard.”
Returning to the original question about early elections, he said: “We have many commitments ahead of us: the war, the Recovery Fund, everything we want to implement” and yes, “it is an election year, but it is also a year of work.” Consequently, he added, “we have to respond with a seriousness and a sense of security, national security, economic security.”
Consequently, he concluded, “the solution is not elections, but work”. After all, “the elections will be held when we have said, in 2027, on the deadlines that exist.”
The next topic of the interview, telephone interceptions: “The issue of ensuring the privacy of communications is a very serious matter. It was just as serious when the issue arose some years ago with the case of Mr Androulakis. The government, as it should, did what was institutionally required. That is to improve the process and close any ‘holes’ that may exist.” For this reason, he explained, additional safeguards were introduced, “which also had the approval of the opposition.”
In conclusion, “any party to the trial can say whatever they want. I don’t want to comment on anything since it is in the hands of the judiciary,” the Deputy Prime Minister said.
Changing the subject to OPEKEPE and asked if there is a second case file, the Deputy Minister was adamant: “I don’t know. I cannot know and I should not know. We have been hearing about it for many, many months. What we have been discussing in these months is how to have a clear system of agricultural subsidies, together with the vice-president (of the government), the leadership of the Ministry of Rural Development.”
While clarifying that he did not underestimate the political and journalistic interest, he noted: “Anything that comes up will obviously be assessed at that time.”
On the trial of the Tempe rail tragedy, after referring to the Prime Minister’s Sunday post, he emphatically noted, “We are all interested and should be interested in a fair trial.
While expressing his hope that “what happened last week will not be repeated on Wednesday” and cited his personal experience as a lawyer to conclude that “problems always arise at the beginning”.
In two words, he added, “it would have been nice if it hadn’t happened. Slowly the situation will be normalized.” And “in the end, we all want the same thing: for responsibility to be assigned where it exists and for the truth to shine.”
Finally, asked about the political exploitation of the trial, the Deputy Prime Minister spoke of “instrumentalisation of the case” in a way that “often leaves parliamentary practice”. His view is that “we politicians and everyone should refrain from making statements and let the case proceed as it should.
