Antonis Samaras gave a full interview to ANT1 today, Sunday.
The former prime minister first referred to the Tempe case, saying that “My government had brought it to me and had voted for it on 717”, which he said he himself had brought forward.
“The government’s approach to the relatives is a mistake, it’s a mistake, I’m not saying this because of the loss of my Lena. Okay, this loss is an experiential situation that brings me closer to these parents. The ban on the exhumation of the son of Panos Routsi was an unnatural decision. When a father is prevented then the independence of the Judiciary ceases to be institutional” he said, noting that “these children became children of all of us, Tempi engraved both our collective subconscious and the subconscious of the new generation”.
Ant. Samaras on the energy policy said that “energy policy and the energy mix are wrong” by the government.
“Why does he keep the VAT high? To show high surpluses and due to inflation it falls as a percentage. In 2014, shortly before I left, the debt had fallen to 317 billion euros,” he said and added:
“In the beginning I gave incentives for investment; instead of crops the fields were filled with machinery. We have a surplus of energy due to RES, but the price per kilowatt hour is high. Doesn’t the government see that VAT on basic goods is unaffordable? Unfortunately, oligopolies have formed in the economy. This is at the expense of the middle class that no one talks about anymore. Today the economy is based on services and funds”.
He stressed that Europe “must come to its senses in terms of energy policy, move to realism. To follow the steps of America”, adding that “a digital transformation is needed”.
Samaras: The post-colonization of the post-colonization has begun
Regarding the fact that there is a gap between citizens and politicians, he replied: “The world cannot stand the shadow and the blur. He demands responsibility. Freedom without responsibility does not exist. It risks turning into a tragedy. We don’t need saviors. We need discipline and purpose to come out of the darkness. The post-colonization of the post-colonization has already begun.”
“The first problem is accuracy. From the 20th of the month the average wage earner runs out of money. Supermarket prices are rising. Crazy things happen with prices.”
“On November 29, 2009, he was elected president of the ND and the next day I told them to take measures. Instead, G. Papandreou brought us the first memorandum. We told Zappeio that the memorandum was a mistake and we were finally vindicated. The Troika itself admitted it.”
“In 2011 I could have gone to national elections, but I didn’t. I nominated the national over the party interest. We revised the memorandum. They accepted it and the debt was cut.”
“If Merkel had supported us, Greece would have avoided this whole fatal game. They wanted Greece to be punished, to leave the euro as an example to others.”
“Tsipras, Kamenos and Golden Dawn threw us down. In the 2.5 years that I governed, I did not have self-reliance. I governed with three parties and then with Venizelos’ PASOK. This is what the people decided. I honored the election result. The country was governed with stability.”
“I received 5 property taxes. I eliminated all of them and we created ENFIA. Today ENFIA is still valid – neither Tsipras nor Mitsotakis abolished it, and that says something”.
“I received a 9.5% deficit and delivered primary surpluses. After time, History will judge us all objectively.”
For OPEKEPE and Trump
“The money had to go to the right people, the state had to quality control where the funds go.”
“On the level of ideas, we have an understanding with Mr. Trump on various issues, such as the woke agenda. I have never met Donald Trump, but I have relations with people in his staff.”
For national issues
On national issues, Mr. Samaras said that it is “oxymoron that some Westerners are selling arms to Turkey, the invader and oppressor of Cyprus.”
“When I requested the expulsion of Gerapetritis, I did so with the sole criterion of my homeland.”
He denounced that Turkish-Bulgarian companies are buying real estate in Thrace
and how “the Turkish consulate is threshing in our Thrace”.
He claimed that New Democracy provided indirect support to Alexis Tsipras for the Council of Europe’s sub-committee on the Western Balkans. “They put the murderer back at the scene of the crime,” said Mr. Samaras, referring to the former prime minister who signed the Prespa agreement.
He spoke of a “mindset of appeasement” on national issues which “will achieve the exact opposite of what you are looking for”. “We are absent from everywhere,” Mr. Samaras said, listing a number of issues. Among other things, he criticized Mitsotakis’ choice to support Joe Biden in the 2024 US elections.
Antonis Samaras recognized as a positive development that Greece and Cyprus were summoned to Egypt, it is positive, but he criticized the choice of the government to position itself vertically in favor of Ukraine and cut off contacts with Moscow.
He spoke of the country’s “complete isolation” and argued that “compromise is being sold as supposed technocratic maturity”. “Greece has enormous potential but a new geopolitical strategy is needed,” he later said.
For his course in New Democracy
“I never left the faction,” claimed Antonis Samaras, explaining that even Political Spring was part of the wider faction.
“I am the first elected president of New Democracy and it is my honor,” he said at another point. “When they threw us, I handed over New Democracy in an orderly manner having lost only one unit after all that uphill battle,” he said of 2015. “The New Democrats know this,” he repeated several times.
Public criticism can do governments good, if the governed are willing to listen. “New Democracy has mutated,” he said at another point.
“He often talks about lentil patriots,” Mr. Samaras said of the prime minister. “Examples of arrogance and institutional indecency,” he noted. “You criticize, they accuse you of toxicity and fake news”. “It’s a shame for real New Democrats,” he added.
“I feel proud of New Democracy, and great sadness for today’s party which is called New Democracy only in name.” Later he spoke of “riverization” of New Democracy.
Asked about the possibility of his return to New Democracy, he repeated that Kyriakos Mitsotakis deleted him. “I didn’t see any admission of wrongdoing,” Mr. Samaras said.
For the potential party
Asked to comment on Doras Bakoyannis’ aversion that he intends to form a party, he did not give a clear answer but accused the former minister of sharing views with Alexis Tsipras on Greek-Turkish relations and the issue of Skopje.
“Listen, all this time I’ve been reading and hearing right and left various scenarios about me, without me ever talking about all of it. Samaras makes a party, Samaras doesn’t make a party, Samaras returns, Samaras doesn’t return, Samaras got along with so-and-so, Samaras got along with Deina, Samaras didn’t get along with anyone.
And not only that, the polls also make me count. That is, some people pay polling companies to measure a party under my leadership, which does not exist. This party does not exist. And even though it’s not in the polls, I’ve seen it go up to 16%. Even a few days after Lena, I was reading right and left my supposed thoughts, my political plans, my feelings and all these incredible things in such tragic moments for me. But why is all this happening? I think there are certain common findings and assumptions that everyone understands on the street, in everyday conversation, in what people say. And what do people say?
Firstly, that today’s New Democracy, because it has mutated, has unfortunately taken the road to the rocks at full speed. It reminds me of what Melina Merkouri once said to Andreas Papandreou about the then PASOK: “President, we don’t like each other anymore”.
And secondly, that patriotism and the ideas that I have expressed over time and with stability have now become the majority in Greek society. After all, what is happening all over the world I guess everyone can see now.
Thirdly, as I told you earlier, Greece has entered the Post-Civilization of the Post-Civilization. Our country needs a new beginning, a new relationship of honesty, consistency, national and individual. From a determined leadership, with a national vision, ready for ruptures, for changes, with knowledge and a return to politics, with battles of ideas and not with management battles.
But it also needs a determined society for the rebirth of the homeland. A rebirth that requires will, stubbornness, effort, not easy solutions. Because we Greeks must rediscover our virtues, our collective values as a society and introduce them to education. Only in this way will Hellenism be reborn. These are truths that everyone says. It’s not just me saying them. For me, yes, I know what it’s called. Both those who go with me and those who don’t know and at least admit that I got through the hard times, but without ever giving rights to inappropriate behavior. And that honors me.
But beware: I am a politician who has won all the offices along the way, with my rights and my mistakes. I reached the highest step, that of the Prime Minister. Therefore, because I have no such needs, I am not motivated by personal ambitions or vanities or childish ambitions. And of course, I also have inside me my great pain for my child. It’s not easy for me at all. I’m human, not a machine.
But I certainly still have a sense of national duty. So I weigh the whole situation very carefully. I watch everything. What is happening inside and outside the country. I will judge calmly. And when I make my decisions, whatever they are, one way or another, I will explain them clearly and thoroughly to the only constant ally of my course, for almost 50 years: the Greek people. I owe it to him. But don’t expect me today to tell you a yes or a no.”
On the issue of demographics, Mr. Samaras said that other measures are needed, in addition to the ones recently voted by the government. It proposed exemption from income tax for a single mother for a period of time. “The Western family is under persecution.” “912 must ring in every house in Greece,” he said characteristically. “Greece must remain Greece.”
Later, regarding the declaration of personalities who call on him and Costas Karamanlis to take initiatives, he said that he agrees with the initiatives they have put forward. “These findings are co-signed by personalities from all political spheres. Patriotism unites,” said Mr. Samaras. “It’s an honor,” he said, that these people included him.
When asked openly if he will form a party, he said: “This party does not exist”, he said “but I saw it in the polls as high as 16%”.
For the repulsion of citizens from the commons
Democracy is the best state model, said the former prime minister and emphasized that there is also the responsibility of the citizens themselves. “Participation in society is a prerequisite for democracy,” he stressed.
He added that “the system does not produce ideas” and only cares about its survival. “Throughout the West, systemic parties are being swept away,” he said, referring to Germany, France, England.
“As long as the only criterion is communication and management, the closer the collapse of the political system is,” said Mr. Samaras.
He argued that politics is called for putting limits on how big interests seek to influence decisions. “I believe in entrepreneurship, economic progress and healthy competition,” the former prime minister said but underlined the state’s role in setting rules that are sometimes linked to geopolitical issues.