Attempt to associate SYRIZA with terrorism ‘not tolerable’ to gov’t, Gerovasili
ΣΧΕΤΙΚΑ ΑΡΘΡΑ
Government spokeswoman Olga Gerovasili on Wednesday denounced what she said was an attempt to associate the SYRIZA party with terrorism, stressing in an interview with the state television channel ERT 1 that “this is not tolerable to us.” She asserted there was an attempt to strike at the government’s efforts at a critical time and spoke of “dangerous games” by ‘quarters’ attempting to return to power.
“Our positions on terrorism are known…and of course, this is impacting on specific people and reputations and lives,” she noted.
Gerovasili was commenting on the furore surrounding former minister Yiannis Panousis and the evidence that he submitted to judicial authorities, including intercepted dialogues between convicted terrorists and SYRIZA party member Panos Lambrou in jail. In a newspaper interview published over the weekend, Panousis had controversially claimed that politicians with links to terrorism had threatened his life and, when prompted to take his allegations to justice, had submitted evidence to a public prosecutor.
Talking to ERT, Gerovasili noted that Lambrou had been an activist fighting for the rights of people in custody for many years and that this could not be “criminalised” and described as a “relationship with terrorism”. Regarding the refusal of the television channel ‘Mega’ to put her on the air to comment on its coverage of the above issue, the spokeswoman insisted that this was “attempted censorship” and exclusion.
She also commented on the issue of non-performing loans and protecting homes, saying the government was continuing the struggle on this issue.
“The effort is not over, we have another week of talks. Consequently, we cannot talk about the final decision. Nevertheless, this negotiation and the talks went quite well as regards the primary residence and we are close to a solution, which is also close to the proposal that the Greek government has made….I means the financial, income criteria and the tax-assessed value of the residence,” she said.
Regarding the 100-installment state debt settlement schemes, Gerovasili said the measure would remain in force and not be abolished, describing this as a government success, while adding the talks were currently focused on when the measure will end and that the issue would be wrapped up by the Eurogroup Working Group meeting on Monday.