Download “Kefalaio” with the journalist A

The Minister of Interior, Tassos Giannitsis’ interview in the weekly
newspaper “Kefalaio” with the journalist A. Perdikaris
31/3/ 2012
1. Are the measures to be taken by the next government in June actually
prescribed? Is there any room for renegotiation?
There is certainly room for renegotiation. Plenty of room. The only thing is that
it will cost the average Greek a little more that way: ten or more years of high
unemployment, income stagnation, young people leaving the country, the
unique experience to turn Greece into a pariah in Europe, into a country that
will be given no attention at all in relation to national issues. All these may be
a tendency towards alarmism or a fantasy. There are many largely prominent
people who support renegotiation; I am sure they cannot be wrong. An
alternative would be to think about how to work more creatively but this is
unpleasant and does not wash with people.
2. Would things have been different today if the insurance reform you
prepared had passed in 2001? Do you regret the way you handled the
case? Do you think that mistakes were made by the government then,
which led to the current situation?
The topic has been closed to anyone who wants to see what happened with
the insurance issue. There is no need to add even a single word.
3. Is the state mechanism ready for elections? When will finally the polls
be set up? What will be the climate of elections controversy?
The state mechanism will work; the Prime Minister and the party leaders will
decide on the date and the date will be made known. The climate will be
peculiar. It is in nobody’s interest that a climate of tension prevails, despite the
anger, the frustration or other emotions felt by many people. The future of all
of us is the only criterion. Our vote will be decisive for the progress of the
country so our judgment must be tempered and balanced.
4. Do you believe, like many of your colleagues do, that the life of the
Papademos government should be extended and that elections should
be deferred to the Greek calends?
No, I do not. The mandate was given for a specific project; the mission has
been executed with absolute precision. It is time for the political system that
gave the mandate to this government to take over. There is no further
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advisability for such an extension of time which will lead to decay and mark a
return to the familiar past.
5. In any case, it appears that the government has completed its work.
Has the government succeeded and what were the lessons learned from
the experience of four months?
The government showed that a double political transcendence is feasible. On
the one hand, we have the parties which left behind old practices, voted the
necessary decisions and moved with a model of policy cooperation asked for
years through the request for applying a proportional representation. On the
other hand, the government itself showed that a non typical government
scheme, under extremely dangerous crisis conditions can achieve very
difficult goals.
In particular, the government succeeded in seven big challenges: Not to let
Greece go bankrupt and leave the euro-zone, ensure a debt forgiveness
representing almost 50% of the GDP, reduce the burden of annual
expenditure on interests for decades, prevent the collapse of our banking
system, by securing debt cut , ensure the recapitalization of banks, restore the
confidence of Europe in the commitments we undertook, make our partners
understand that there is an urgent need to enhance the investment funds that
would develop our economy. Certainly the government failed in obtaining all
these achievements for free; it failed to obtain the promise that we will be
given more, provided we continue to think and act the way we did in the past.
But you can not expect so much from a government of a few months.
6. Is there any room for reducing the pressure on the fiscal adjustment
because of the euro-developments?
By today’s standards, I do not think it is possible. Only if we were faced with a
generalised crisis in Europe, which I wish not. We must realize that a longer
time of adjustments for us means higher costs for Europe, which is difficult to
be accepted. However, what matters is the chain of complementary reforms.
The success of the fiscal adjustment will not be judged on fiscal performance.
It will be judged on our ability to achieve development, so that the combination
can produce improvement. Without this combination, the success of one is
trapped by the failure of the other.
7. Upon completion of the PSI and the new loan agreement do you
believe that the issue of remaining in the euro area has closed for
Greece?
The new agreement has given Greece a better starting point. New prospects
have appeared. They may be faint, yet they are real. It depends on us to turn
them into big and solid prospects. That is why I will tell you that the issue has
closed. At the same time I will tell you that the issue has not closed. As long
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as the fabrications concerning the realities of the country, our deep
pathologies, the practices which are responsible for the failure are covered by
shouts, the issue will remain open. It is as if the Enlightenment, in a
mysterious way, bypassed Greece or as if we raised barriers in us and
avoided any contact with it. José Saramago’s Essay on Blindness is a novel
which fits perfectly with our situation. It is not that we can not see or
understand. We understand vey well but we do not want to admit publicly that
we have understood. We have remained stubbornly stuck in the most
reactionary and deforming ideas. Because otherwise we would confess our
failure as individuals, as protagonists in the various expressions of public life,
as members of a society that only observe and naively believe.
8. The persistence of the parties in the existing status of state funding –
as it also appeared during the recent discussion in the Institutions and
Transparency Committee of the Parliament – is characterized by the common
feeling as a provocative attitude. Is it so and what has to be changed?
The party funding should be adjusted downward, like the wages, the pensions
or the state expenditure. I submitted my proposals to the Institutions and
Transparency Committee of the Parliament. Parties seem willing to accept
this change; however, they are faced with the indebtedness problem and their
obligations towards the banks.
9. After the elections, how do you imagine your role? Is it likely that you
will put yourself at the disposal of the next Prime Minister?
I can not imagine any political role for me after the elections. I have not
wanted to make a political career and this will not change at this stage of my
life.
10. After completion of the program will there still be Public Utilities?
Do we know the kind of public utilities we want to have? Do we want to have
public utilities that support the system of production by providing modern
services or low cost products, quality and technology? Or do we want to have
public utilities that came to a standstill and, instead of adding, remove
productivity from the system of production and the economy? If we can have
the first model let us try now that we still have time. If not, the question has no
point.
11. While an imperative need to shrink government is becoming
apparent, should the forthcoming constitutional reform deal with
permanence issues? What other subjects do you think should stop
being treated as taboo, primarily by the political world?
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The big challenge in our country is the ability to implement policies tacking a
wide range of problems. This means the establishment of a state that can
provide services to the citizens without the pathologies we know, at which
we sneer when we refer to them and at the same time we have an insulting
and arrogant attitude against other counties citizens when they refer to them.
As if others have no right to refer to our habits. Recently, I have been in a
European country in order to support the interests of my country, present the
actions taken by us, the sacrifices made by the Greek workers, businessmen
and pensioners and the unfairness of a series of criticisms launched at the
country. At the same time, the Greek media were referring to scandals in the
Social Insurance Institute , pensions scandals, scandals with people claiming
and getting benefits without being entitled to them, fake disabled and blind
people , scandals in the investment approval process, fake redundancies etc.
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