Goal: ‘Transparency and honesty’
Both ND and PASOK proclaim they will fight corruption. You have already announced measures against entangled interests by means of independent control authorities. On the level of daily life, what will be done about people’s problems with corrupt civil servants? The new age requires a new relationship between citizens and politics, citizens and State. It makes a New Governance imperative. In the 21st century, governing cannot mean either petty political expediencies or personal vanity. It cannot be identified with cunning minorities who believe in making the least amount of effort and perpetuating power to satisfy selfish goals. It cannot tolerate arrogance or ignoble motives. You have often heard me speak about stock market crime. This could not have happened without the State’s participation, or if the State had done at least something to abide by its responsibilities. We envision a State that respects the resources it is handling and the laws it passes, that guarantees legality; a State of social justice and solidarity, that stands by its people no matter where they live. Our immediate goal is to secure absolute transparency and honesty. We also plan to implement a comprehensive action plan against corruption. We will abolish laws that encourage entangled interests, and the provisions in the law that reduced breach of faith from a crime to a petty offense. The institutional framework that violates every sense of healthy competition and creates an oligopoly in the sector of public works. We will abolish the amendments that allow deviations from legislation on supplies, that have opened the way to suspect allocations. We will institute protective measures against corruption and entangled interests. Our goal is for monitoring and transparency everywhere. We will strengthen existing administrative authorities and set up new independent ones. We will put a stop to unaccountability. In order to make the public sector more efficient, wipe out bureaucracy and better serve the people, we will expand the principle of one-stop services. Three documents, no more, and each document should require no more than three signatures. The civil service will have to commit itself to a time schedule for each service to the public. In the event of delays, people will receive compensation. At some point the State has to learn to fulfill its duties, to respect people. Citizens not only have obligations, they also have rights. ND deputies and cadres have been making accusations that PASOK cadres are creating a climate of concern, particularly in the provinces, as to what might happen if ND wins. There are rumors of civil servants being punished and that a ND government might even abolish pensions awarded to members of the wartime National Resistance. How are you dealing with this? All these reports and slanderous attempts to cause divisions and cultivate fear being made by the outgoing system that are no more than a confirmation of its panic, the fact of losing the power they are so attached to. They are afraid that without power, they have no reason to exist. We appeal to citizens who know what they want and how to get it. On March 7, the citizens will decide and will demand a new government. They are demanding a government that will stand by them, and stand even closer to those who are in the greatest need. On March 8 we will set up a government of all Greeks that will serve all citizens without asking them who they voted for. We will unite all Greeks. On March 8, there will be no winners or losers. All Greeks will have the same possibilities and the same opportunities. All of us will move ahead in the new age, to a new beginning, for the Greece that we want: to change our lives and the lives of those around us.
