“No cigarette and guitar to the Unknown Soldier”
“The law is now being implemented, we see it in the Universities, but also in the stadiums. The world understood that the revolutionary gymnastics of the previous years took Greece backwards. Some invested in the provocation and the mess and it didn’t work out for them“, emphasized the government representative, Pavlos Marinakis, speaking on SKAI television, asked about the peaceful realization of yesterday’s parades for the national anniversary of NO.
On the same issue, Mr. Marinakis noted that ELAS is and will deal with the implementation of the recent amendment for the protection and promotion of the Unknown Soldier’s Monument with professionalism and insisted that “we achieve the goal of enforcing the law without causing tension”. The government representative estimated that the recently voted amendment was necessary “because we were not all on the same page”, as he characteristically said and accused PASOK of contradicting himself.
“Now PASOK, through its representative, which we heard a little while ago, characterizes the amendment as unnecessary. A few days ago in the Parliament he had called it unconstitutional, voted against it and pledged to abolish it. When you call something unnecessary, you don’t say at the same time that you will abolish it when you become the government” he reported.
Regarding a video that has come to light, showing a young man sitting on a step just ahead of the Monument to the Unknown Soldier smoking with his company and a policeman asks him to move away from it, Pavlos Marinakis commented: “Two messages are being sent here. One is: fine, cigarette, guitar in an outdoor area but not in the Unknown Soldier, i.e. not where we honor the nation’s heroes. The second message is: See with what professionalism without wanting to provoke the police (s.p. they asked him to leave the scene). Police officers work hard hours, under difficult conditions with better wages, but not with the salaries they deserve (…) and look at the professionalism with which they faced such a situation”.
“I say this because there is also the aspect of provocation. We live in post-political Greece where a particular political space is politically nourished by such attempts to create tension, artificial tension“, added the government representative.
“Some of the political parties reinvested in the mess, don’t kid us”
“This government has been accused of many things, not to mention everything… we have also made our mistakes and we are correcting them. Most of it (including what we’ve been accused of) I think is overkill. One of the most extreme is that we cultivate toxicity. Let me remind you that we have been accused, even by the prime minister, of covering for a smuggler, we have been accused by the official opposition leader of being orchestrators – and the prime minister personally – of a cover-up that was never proven, we have been accused of hiding wagons, of disappearing dead (…)”, said the government representative.
Mr. Marinakis said: “We responded to all this with arguments, we responded with what we believed to be true and it seems that we are justified in the last period of time on the occasion of a hunger strike of a suffering father, in which we humanly stood by him like the whole society, some of the political parties re-invested in the mess, don’t be fooled.”
To a question for information about the impending restructuring, Mr. Marinakis replied that “The government is not in any such phase, a reorganization took place very recently, there is no such intention and such a thing does not exist in the prime minister’s horizon”.
Regarding the state of the Economy, Mr. Marinakis emphasized that “in 2019, Greece was called upon to climb an uphill path, since then we have created half a million jobs, we have increased the minimum and also the average wage, we have reduced unemployment, we have increased investment. By fighting tax evasion and growing the economy we reduce taxes and increase government revenues. We have taken many initiatives and in the housing sector, we have another uphill climb to climb, but as much as it is wrong to celebrate, it is just as wrong to zero in.”
Regarding the relations between Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis and Defense Minister Nikos Dendias, the government representative emphasized that they “they are in the best place, because quite simply Mr. Dendias has been at the forefront of government policies in foreign policy and defense for the last 6 years. Politics are policies and the result is not abstract theory and rumours.”
Besides, Mr. Marinakis once again characterized the rumors about a change in progress in the leadership of New Democracy “tales of the poor” and emphasized that “we are talking about the prime minister, who was re-elected with a larger percentage in 2023 and will be judged by the citizens and not by the parapolitical kitchen 10 cafes around the Parliament”. Regarding the rumors about the establishment of new parties, the government representative noted that “we do not underestimate and we do not overestimate anyone. We experienced in the past that the country was governed with the logic of 15 members. We cannot talk about hypothetical one-person parties. The parties must answer questions, such as with whom he will govern, what he thinks about foreign policy, defense, the economy, parties have leaders, positions and executives. We cannot compare a government with results in the last 6 years with hypothetical one-person parties”.
In a question about the former prime minister, Antonis Samaras, the government representative emphasized that “We have answered many times, no one, including the prime minister, sought to have a former prime minister leave the party, it was not a pleasant thing. Addressing the fighters of the faction and all those who have a duty to defend our policy, especially in foreign policy”.