Opposition turns the heat up
In one of his most virulent attacks since PASOK lost power in March, opposition leader George Papandreou yesterday accused the government of overall incompetence, inaction on major foreign policy concerns and seeking to impose its will on the media. «Over the past few months, we have been observing [the government’s] doings with shock and awe,» Papandreou told party officials in Thessaloniki. «Their policy is to secure power for its own sake.» He said the conservatives had displayed «dangerous inaction» on foreign policy matters, such as the name by which the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia will be internationally known, and Turkey’s EU prospects. Papandreou also denounced the much-vaunted anti-corruption drive as a ploy to gain full control over the media. He also criticized the government’s fiscal review, which dismissed Greece’s past budget figures as PASOK book-cooking. Papandreou found an unlikely supporter in New Democracy MEP Giorgos Dimitrakopoulos, who, in a newspaper interview yesterday, described ND’s handling of the matter as «unfortunate and ignorant.»
