Conservative Prime Minister Antonis Samaras said that his party would win Sunday’s elections. Speaking at the New Democracy (ND) party’s main rally at the “Vellidis” conference center in Thessaloniki, he said that each vote is crucial in these elections as the winning party would get an extra 50 seats and expressed the necessity of ND succeeding and ensuring that a pro-European force leads the country.
Present at the packed-out hall was former prime minister Konstantinos Karamanlis who was welcomed into the conference center with cheers. Also present was Central Macedonian Governor Apostolos Tzitzikostas, sending a message of unity andshowing that party differences had been resolved in time for the elections.
Mr. Samaras showcased the structural problems with the main opposition Radical Left Coalition SYRIZA party’s program. He reminded his audience that it was SYRIZA that had dragged Greece into elections, stopping the country from exiting the bailout early. He said that the “cloud of uncertainty” looming over Greece would be lifted following Sunday’s elections.
He pinpointed problems with SYRIZA’s claims that it would abolish the single property tax (ENFIA) and replace this with a large property tax. He pledged that he would slash the controversial ENFIA tax by 7%. He warned that SYRIZA had plans to “kill” the economy and lay hands on peole’s bank deposits.
Other warnings concerning the opposition included criticism of SYRIZA’s behavior that is scaring away foreign investors. He warned that SYRIZA wants everything to be state-owned so that it can have its own “party army” that would cancel large investments, like Cosco in Piraeus. “There’s no country in the world where nationalizations take place except Venezuela and North Korea,” said Mr. Samras before likening SYRIZA to the regime of the “North Korean prime minister.”
He reiterated his belief that two worlds are coming into conflict in these elections. On the one hand, there is Greece of stability and growth and, on the other, there is Greece of debt.
It is expected that Mr. Samaras will continue using the same tones at his speech on Friday at the Tae Kwon Do stadium at Palaio Faliro on Saturday.