G. A. PAPANDREOU: First of all, let me thank the PLN for the great hospitality, and of course let me...
thank the government and the people of Costa Rica for this very warm welcome.
Let me also say that for us Costa Rica represents a symbol of progress, of democratic culture, and also of green, environmentally friendly growth.
And of course it was great to host both the president, the current president, a very dynamic woman, Laura Chinchilla, here at our conference, and of course also to have a former president, Oscar Arias, and Nobel Laureate winning the peace prize, here in our conference.
Our message is threefold.
First of all, we need to put democracy over markets. And this is something we have understood, not only in Greece but around the world. This is why democracy, reoccupying democracy, if you like, for the people, is the first message.
The second is to make sure that we create, when we are with all this wealth and around the world, a just world, a just and more equal world. And this is also what we represent.
And thirdly, we need growth. We need to invest in growth. We need to invest in green growth, as Costa Rica has done. Invest in green growth, which for us means investing in quality, investing in human beings, investing in education, investing in innovation, investing in welfare.
We have concluded that globally we need more governance, and democratic governance, if we want to deal with the big international issues. Whether it’s markets and financial crisis, whether it’s climate change, whether it’s poverty, we need global democratic governance.
We can deal with all these issues; we have the capacity to deal with all these issues.
At the same time, we in Greece, from my experience I can tell you that we also have to do our homework.
We have to make our changes in our societies. And we have to get beyond easy populisms and looking for saviors.
We have to make difficult decisions, very much in order to survive in a very difficult globalizing world.
Make difficult decisions to protect our citizens, to help our citizens and to protect the future generations.
And in Greece the previous conservative government did not make these decisions, unluckily did not manage the country well, unluckily managed the country in a clientelistic way. And the debt grew. And it did not grow in favor of the poor; it grew in favor of those that were already wealthy. And this is what we inherited, as a socialist government.
So we had a mismanaged economy and disastrous behavior, which we had to deal with.
And of course I would like to thank, both from here in Costa Rica the leadership, but also all the members that were in the Council these days, for their solidarity with the Greek people.
But from my experience, I’d like to stress how important it is what President Laura Chinchilla and the government is doing, the Parliament is discussing, about fiscal reform in Costa Rica.
Because this is the way to protect from future attacks from the market, and to make sure that your citizens keep a prospect of growth and of justice in your society.
Finally, I just want to say that our movement believes in the empowerment of our citizens.
Democracy is a word that was coined in ancient Greece, and whether it is ancient Athens or Athens of today, the fight for democracy is a fight for justice, is a fight for social welfare, is a fight for the people, and it is a fight for a society of values. And that is what our movement stands for.
Thank you very much.
***
It’s very clear that the deficit was hidden by the previous government, unluckily. They officially reported a few days before elections that we had a deficit of 6%, and after the Eurostat, which is the agency in Europe that looks at all the statistics, took one year to look at everything: general government, local government, the government agencies and so on, it came up with a figure of 16% deficit. A 16% deficit, from 6 to 16. So a whole 10% and more was hidden.
And, if I remember exactly, that is about EUR36 billion deficit.
So at the same time the debt of the country, over the approximately five and a half years of the previous government, ballooned, and almost doubled, from EUR180 billion to EUR320 billion. This was the crisis we had to deal with.
Now, no governments in the European Union, and neither the Eurostat, deny or think that these are wrong statistics. I wish they were less.
The only ones that deny sometimes, or try to deny this, are the opposition that was responsible for this. But I don't want get into the internal politics of Greece. This was the issue that was on the table, and this was the crisis we had to deal with.
We knew we had to make very big changes in Greece, in order to make our economy sustainable: fiscal reform, investment in competitive industries, from green economy and tourism, and so on. But this should have been done many years before.
We had to deal with the crisis, and Europe had to deal with the crisis. And that is why these have been very difficult years for Greece. But we will succeed.
JOURNALIST: One question from Greek television, one question for Mr. President. Mr. Papandreou, you talked about the failure of conservative government in Europe. Do you think that people, after the end of the crisis, will switch to the center left, while the conservative parties targeted socialists, and they say that the excesses of welfare state was the cause of the crisis? Thank you.
G. A. PAPANDREOU: The cause of the crisis in Greece, and our different crises, the crisis may be a crisis of debt, but underneath there are different problems in different countries.
In Greece, the crisis was much more a crisis of mismanagement, of lack of transparency, of waste of public money, of investing in the wrong areas which were not competitive, and with a clientelistic state that grew out of proportion.
For example, the lack of rule of law. I would put as the center of this the big problem of tax evasion. I know you know this as an issue in Latin America. And this puts the burden very often on the poor and the middle class, and the rich escape.
So this is not the socialist welfare state that is the problem in Greece.
In other countries the problem was less. In Portugal and Spain or in Ireland and Italy, there is a problem, as in Greece, of course. Well, in Ireland it was the question of the banks, while in the other countries, it was a question again in Spain where the banks had problems, but in Portugal and Italy it is a question of competitiveness. These are different types of problems.
But the real problem was that the markets are, after the crisis of 2008, so fearful, so risk averse, that they over-react to these problems and give no time to these countries to adapt to new situations.
And this is where Europe came in, to create a mechanism to support these countries, which it has done, and that is positive. But it has not done what was necessary to calm the markets.
And that is a failure of a conservative Europe, a dominantly conservative Europe today, that has not been able to deal with the market in an effective way.
And that is not only hurting the programs we already have, in Greece and Ireland and Portugal and even the other countries that are trying to adapt, but this is also hurting the wider European economy, but the world economy also.
So I do hope that we in Europe collectively make the necessary strong decisions, have the strong will, to restart the European economy towards growth, which I think is crucial for the world economy also.
JOURNALIST: (μιλάει ισπανικά)
G. A. PAPANDREOU: First of all, there is a very difficult negotiation with the private sector on the adjustment of the private debt that Greece has. I do hope, and I am optimistic, that we can reach an agreement which will make Greek debt sustainable.
I don’t want to get into the details of this negotiation. It’s still ongoing, but it is very important that we can find a voluntary agreement, and of course this is done with the support of all the European Union, too.
On on o. t of all t y t tive eur erse, tt UR320 billion. is half-hearted disclaimers n the adjustments, I think there are two different sides. One is the structural adjustments, the deeper changes, which we are making and need to continue to make. The other one I would say are more superficial, but they hurt more. These are cutting wages, cutting pensions, and so on.
We need to continue the structural adjustments and put more emphasis there. That is where we will make Greece long-term sustainable. But I believe the burden we have put on the Greek people in the other types of adjustments, of wages and pensions, we cannot do any more. We need now time for the structural adjustments, and we need to protect the Greek people from further burdens on their own economic situation. And I think that’s only just.
Thank you very much.
photo:news247.gr
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