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PM vows to fight graft
 Prime Minister Costas Karamanlis delivers a speech yesterday during a civic remembrance service in Akrotiri, near Hania in Crete, for late Greek leader Eleftherios Venizelos and his son Sophocles, who were both born on the island, as the audience, some in traditional Cretan dress, look on. The ceremony marked the 69th anniversary of the statesman’s death and is held each year. Karamanlis said he chose Venizelos’s political life as the subject of his doctoral thesis.
Prime Minister Costas Karamanlis reiterated his determination to attack the scourge of corruption head-on yesterday in a ceremony commemorating Eleftherios Venizelos, Greece’s internationally renowned statesman who died 69 years ago. “Venizelos was always ready to fight, whatever the obstacles facing him. It was enough for him to believe that what he did was what the Fatherland demanded and that it was for the public good,” Karamanlis said. Karamanlis and his government have been facing mounting criticism over their failure to acknowledge European Union objections against a law barring media owners from bidding for public contracts. Greece now faces a European Court procedure as well as cuts in EU funding. Publicly, the government has chosen to appear as the defender of the Constitution and to cast doubt on the motives of critics, including European Commission officials. Its stance has been echoed by the anti-European Left.
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