Prime Minister Antonis Samaras expressed his gratefulness for the offer of the Church of Greece over the years the economic crisis towards Greek society, during a conference of the Archdiocese on “solidarity, the social work of the church and the social dimension of EU policies”.

The PM stated that on one side he has numbers and on the other, people, emphasizing that the aim is to improve the lives of the people and not a faceless number or index.

He also referred to the efforts made for the recovery of the economy in order for the country to never arrive at such an impasse again, and gave credit to the Church on its contributions.

“Now that the most difficult uphill battle is behind us, I must emphasize that during these difficult times, Greek society was held upright by family and Church”, stated the PM and expressed his gratitude.

He also announced that in addition to relief measures, the social dividend, measures to support the homeless and the works of the Church, there is an emergency food and special assistance program specifically decided by the European Parliament and the Greek government.

He stated that it is a program worth 281 million euros for the period of 2014-2020 -which may exceed 350 million- and reported that half of that money will be managed by the Chuch of Greece.

“In war, there are no atheists. We live in this war for survival of our homeland, where everything points to us winning it”, continued Mr. Samaras, stating that there were many things done wrong in the past but we will continue to look and move forward steadily

The Church, he pointed out, is the ark of love, and asked it to continue its contribution even now when things are starting to take a turn for the better.

Present during the event was, among others, Archbishop of Athens and Greece  Ieronimos, who gifted the PM with a holy image of St. Anthony.