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A bulldozer yesterday...
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EDITORIAL |
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Set in stone
Since March 2004, Costas Karamanlis's New Democracy government, as a political force for national reform, has been called upon to do what the «reformist» PASOK governments (under Costas Simitis) did not do.
This is certainly no easy task.
Any policy, once it is decided upon and planned, has to confront the harsh reality that the Greek state has been so corroded over so many decades, that certain practices and mentalities are so entrenched that it repels anything that is truly reformist, productive or necessary for the reorganization of the nation. |
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COMMENTARY |
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Sacrifices for a cause
I have lost count of the number of times since the end of the dictatorship that citizens of this country have been called upon to dig deeper into their pockets to stabilize the economy. During the Simitis governments (1996-2004) alone, 87 new taxes were imposed and an additional 10 trillion drachmas (29.3 billion euros) brought into state coffers, supposedly to achieve fiscal adjustment, that is to reduce the state deficit below 3 percent of GDP to enable the country to join the European Union's Economic and Monetary Union. |
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