Papandreou: ND bears responsibility for populism in 2009
New Democracy bears a “huge responsibility” for its populism in undermining his government after Greece’s financial woes became known and for prolonging the country’s bailout regime, former prime minister George Papandreou said on Friday.
Papandreou, who was prime minister from 2009 to 2011, told the “50 Years of the Metapolitefsi” conference that a “spirit of unity” was lacking when he took office and the true extent of the country’s indebtedness emerged.
“I had said that if we didn’t all move together, the memoranda would be very long, and that if we moved in the right way we could have gotten a [debt] haircut,” he said.
He added that in 2011 he had called New Democracy leader Antonis Samaras twice to offer to step down as prime minister, even though he had won the election with a 44% landslide. But his plans were quickly leaked to the press.
“We were talking about the future of the country and it started with bad faith and undermining. It undermined the prestige of a [possible] coalition government,” he said.
His proposal eventually materialized in the Papademos cross-party government in 2011, he said.
Papandreou said that the IMF had told the preceding New Democracy government in 2007 and 2008 that the country was on route to bankruptcy.
Ten days before the 2009 election he said he was informed by then interior minister Prokopis Pavlopoulos that “we are not doing well,” but when he asked prime minister Kostas Karamanlis for the facts he received no reply.
Noting the recent European Parliament motion sounding the alarm on the decline of the rule of law in Greece, Papandreou said that Greece has experienced a “regression” in terms of its independent institutions and the functioning of democracy.
He also warned that the country will face a debt problem again in 2032.
“We have a period of grace until 2032. Then there will be a lot of debt that we will have to deal with,” he said.
Commenting on the debate to legalize private universities, he said that non-state universities should be allowed to operate with the same freedoms as public universities.
