In his message and wishes for the New Year, the President of Democracy Karolos Papoulias spoke of the need to implement a national plan for the recovery of the country’s production base. Mr. Papoulias hoped that 2012 “will be the last year of recession” and stressed the prospect of “the troika era as we know it coming to an end and transitioning to a situation of strict control that will not however be obsessive, but based on rational institutional rules”.
The President then asserted that “our partners have agreed to reduce the Greek debt” and maintained that “they must respect their responsibilities; their moral obligation towards the Greek people, which had suffered exhaustive sacrifices due to their mistakes, according to their own public admission”.
Mr. Papoulias then referred to “our own mistakes” and stated that “there is no time to mourn or blame each other. It is paramount that a concise national plan must be implemented immediately for the recovery of the production base in order to tackle the nightmarish unemployment, especially of young people”.
The President explained how “there can be no other priority other than supporting the most vulnerable social groups” and that it is “a shame for our culture to have hungry children and shivering senior citizens”, while claiming that “the imbalance of burdens must be overturned, there are no excuses”.
Finally, Mr. Papoulias extended his wishes to all those “who are away; our soldiers, our security forces, those who work in hospitals and are being treated, our sailors and our compatriots who live abroad and worry about the future of out country with us”.
