A judge or a Christian orthodox Taliban?

22.04.08

The court ruling by Justice Mr. Dimitrios Gavalas, which accepts the petition of extreme nationalist Konstantinos Plevris and orders the temporary withdrawal from school libraries of Ersi Sotiropoulou’s book « ‘Zig-Zag around the Neratzies’» (bitter-orange trees), until the final court ruling is delivered, is not just provocative and unacceptable. It is judiciously preposterous and shameful for the Greek Justice system, that a judge reaches the point to praise the bravery of the Nazis (‘free translation of the extracts of the court ruling) « ‘… today we see the perversion of the great historical truths and the silencing of acknowledged facts, for example that children are taught that the Germans, who fought bravely against the whole world, were beaten by the Anglo-Americans, who just by hearing the word ‘Germans’ were running as far as they could (….) the crimes of the Allies (…) are not mentioned ). »

The judge reaches the point to question the constitution: «(…) all those ‘progressives’, ‘modernists’, ‘pseudo-civilised’ talk and write and a derogatory way for the royalty and for constitutional monarchy »

And the judge has no reservation to apply the rational of a Christian Orthodox Taliban at his ruling: «Once upon a time, young people were going to church to find the truth, that is not ideological or any other subjective view of the world, but truth, light, life, being our Lord Jesus Christ (….)».« Children’s literature appealing to innocent children’s soul that the Son of God Jesus Christ pointed as an example (….)»

This is not a court ruling by any standard of jurisprudence, as there is no rule that the judge did not violate, in order to promote his extreme ideology. This is not a mistake, but a slap in the face of Law and Justice, it is fanatical religious preaching, a manifestation of the Greek Dictatorship (1967-1974) motto ‘Greece of Christian Greeks’, it is from beginning to the end an anachronistic and reactionary absurdity.

Liberal Alliance (Greek Liberals) demands from the Attorney of the Hellenic Supreme Court (Arios Pagos), to nullify this decision.

Liberal Alliance also demands that disciplinary action is taken against the above mentioned judge.

Liberal Alliance (Greek Liberals) will attend the summit with other Liberal Parties of South East Europe

Liberal Alliance (Greek Liberals) will participate in a summit with the other Liberal Parties of South East Europe that will take place in Skopje, FYROM, on Saturday 19 April 2008 under the auspices of ELDR and LDP. The main subject of the meeting will be the worrying resurgence of nationalism and the increasing occurrence of incidents of extremism and populism in the countries of the region.

The Vice President of Liberal Alliance Mr Manoledakis, who will attend the summit, will highlight that only policies based on the liberal ideas can guarantee piece and co-operation between the countries of South East Europe.

Liberal Alliance supports that, justice, equality before the Law for citizens of every country, respect for the territorial integrity of every country, good neighbouring relations, freedom to express one’s national identity, rejection of any kind of secessionism, should form the basis for peace in troubled regions like the Balkans.

With regards to the resolution of the issue for a final name of FYROM, Liberal Alliance will support an agreement based on the proposals of the UN envoy, Mr Nimits, so that FYROM should become a member of EU and NATO as soon as possible.

Liberal Alliance respects the right of any citizen of the region to consider themselves Macedonians whether they are in Greece or elsewhere and expects that the same right exists and should be protected, for anyone who wants to define his or her national identity as Greek.

Only with the full recognition of the right for defining one’s national identity can minorities, living in any country, bridge cultural and political divisions, and in this way they can nullify any possible plans to take advantage of them, with a higher purpose to change borders of states.

During the summit, Liberal Alliance will reaffirm its position that the expedient accession to the EU, of the countries of Western Balkans, will entrench EU law and institutions in the region, forming the basis for the countries’ partnership and for the protection of the individual rights of every citizen.

Finally, in order to advance the above mentioned objective and to prevent future crisis, Liberal Alliance will propose the establishment of a permanent framework for common planning and dialogue between all the Balkan countries.

As a first step, Liberal Alliance will propose the co-ordination of all the Liberal Parties of the region towards the transformation of the Balkans from a source of instability for Europe, to a region of piece and prosperity for all.

'The Greeks are Coming'

31.03.08- Liberal Alliance press release

Liberal Alliance (Greek Liberals) wishes to highlight the hostility against free economy expressed by members of all Parliamentary Parties, vented on the occasion of the sale of the Greek Telecommunication Organization (OTE) shares owned by MIG, to the Deutche Telecom.

Mr Tsipras from the left wing SYRIZA and Mr Karatzaferis from the right wing LAOS accused MIG of making a huge profit of hundreds of million euros, whilst Mr Papandreou of PASOK speaking in parliament asked that this sale should be investigated by the public prosecutor!

Liberal Alliance could consider these accusations as credible if they were accompanied by evidence of unlawful acts, something that no politician has put forward yet. On the contrary, all the politicians easily throw vague accusations without any shred of proof, still they keep silent on a fully substantiated case for illegal and irregular actions regarding OTE.

The first offence they 'forgot' is Greece's violation of EU law for free movement of capital with the Greek Government's special law to limit private ownership of the shares of the Public Benefit State Companies (DEKO) to 20%. The only purpose of this act of parliament was for Governement to push MIG, a business conglomerate, out of OTE, which was achieved.
Oddly enough the politicians and others who wanted MIG to leave OTE, now accuse the company of doing as they wanted, but without losing money.

The second offence they 'forgot' regards the 'Siemens bribes' where according to press information and legal investigations, Siemens was bribing political parties, union leaders, and managers of OTE.
The most recent information coming from testimonies of workers of Siemens in Germany, reveals incredible bribe-taking from Greek officials, the arrivals of which were announced with the code phrase 'The Greeks are Coming'.
Amongst other revelations, information made public refers to offers in kind, for example, shopping in expensive shops of Munich, accommodation in luxurious hotels, free holidays for politicians even for covering for wedding receptions of politicians relatives! Süddeutsche Zeitung notes that Siemens was bribing around 200 OTE's officials from 1990 to 2006. It is mentioned that there were times where the company was spending more money for bribes in Greece than in Nigeria.

For Liberal Alliance maintaining State Control over OTE, serves only the perpetuity of the 'good life' of the malign groups that leech on this company. The extremities used in the course of defending state control of OTE and other Public Benefit State Companies (DEKO) prove how much is really at stake for them.

For Liberal Alliance it is obvious that Greece's political establishment protects those who obstruct the progress of the country and the prosperity of its citizens

Liberal Alliance will stand by the side of all the citizens, businessmen and workers who will decide to stand against this odious situation and work for its reversal.

A race of demagoguery and populism whilst the real problems, run deeper and deeper

28.03.08- Liberal Alliance press release

Liberal Alliance (Greek liberals) points out that the opposition's behavior was nothing more than a show of populism and demagoguery during the public and parliamentary debate for the new Social Security Law

Unfortunately this escalating confrontation between PASOK and SYRIZA, for the price of the supreme populist party, have overshadowed the discussion of a new Law that keeps every bit of the pathology of the same system that leads Greece's Social Security system to insolvency.
A Social Security system, that the Council of Ministers of the European Union during a recent statement doubts the viability of Greece's public finances because of the implications of an aging population.

Against this mockery of a reform proposed by New Democracy, PASOK and SYRIZA have not articulate a positive political argument, nor do they present their own serious and viable alternatives. Worse, they attempt with a motion of confidence and the collection of signature for 'referendum' to cover their inability to present a serious proposal for a serious matter.
SYRIZA's proposal for a referendum on Social Security, lacks any democratic sensitivity as the ones that will oppose any change of the status quo have a disproportionately greater power over the ones that will shoulder the economic cost like the young workers and anyone who is not old enough to vote.

Once more the political establishment proves that it cares for nothing else, other than the plundering and sharing of an omnipresent and gargantuan State and cannot bother for submission of proposals that will solve the citizens' problems.

The recent events also prove without doubt the inadequacy, of the Politicians of the big Political Parties that have risen either through family connections and name recognition or by serving loyally political party and worker's union bureaucracies, politicians that have no qualifications whatsoever to deal with today's complex issues.

Liberal Alliance has submitted to Greek Parliament and to the public, its proposals for the Social Security and will keep on propagate them in the coming years.

Important court ruling regarding 'sharia law' in Thrace.

27.03.08-Liberal Alliance press release

Liberal Alliance salutes the important court ruling with great symbolic and substantial significance, from the High Court of Rodopi in Thrace.
This ruling questions the up to now indisputable power of Islamic sharia law for the Muslim minority of Thrace by recognizing equal hereditary rights to the Muslim women with Muslim men.

The court decision rational notes that: ' the judicial power of the mufti could not possibly function towards a direction of the human rights violation of Muslims who are clearly protected by the Greek Constitution, the European Convention of Human Rights, and the supplementary Paris Protocol, applying anachronistic laws that were brought in effect during historically and politically transitional and fluid periods, cannot remove rights and discriminate against Greek Muslim women, thus deviating from the constitutional right for equality between the sexes and the fundamental principle that all citizens should be equal before the law. '

Liberal Alliance is the only political party, that proposes in its manifesto, the 'abolition of Islamic sharia law supremacy in parts of Greece that is still in effect (like Thrace) and that no law should be incompatible with the law of Greece. Law should be applied with no discrimination. Removal of every judicial power from Muslim minorities muftis and limiting their role strictly to their religious duties. The appointment of muftis is an internal matter for the Muslim minority with which the state should not interfere.'

Liberal Alliance emphasizes that the defence of human rights and of freedom of expression of individuals and groups should not be selective and applied arbitrarily but should be comprehensive and entrenched in the institutions within the rule of law and due process.

The contemporary agents of the Middle Ages are here

21.03.08-Liberal Alliance press release

Liberal Alliance condemns the cease of funding of the Academic Libraries, by not including them on the ESPA 2009-2013. Academic Libraries is an indispensable instrument for promoting research and development of the Greek Universities and their demise will lead Public Tertiary Education to its further depreciation.

Liberal Alliance supports significant cuts in government spending. But Education, investment in Research and Development form the greater possible advantage for any country in today's globally competitive environment.
Greece's investment in the above is of the lowest of the developed world, and whilst Ireland invested the greater portion of the EU subsidies in education, research and technology with acknowledged results, Greece has squandered it to areas that mattered much less and continues to do so.

It is impossible not to think that Greece's current government, being unable to comprehend the current global trends, aims to impose a digitally illiterate education system.
Students in Greece will no longer be able to access 13.500 web -based media that opened a window to the world, and this constitutes a brutal assault to their intelligence but also to the intelligence of the country in general.

Greek citizens suffering of increasing unemployment and advancing poverty trends, is the result of precisely this policy of indifference to education in general, and digital education in particular by successive Greek Governments.

Liberal Alliance outlines that the only way for Greece to compete effectively within the international arena in the new 'digital century', is through investment in an educational system that serves the needs of a knowledge-based economy and a modern open society.

Social Security reveals the Greek Government's incompetence and the Opposition's shallow populism

19.03.2008 - Liberal Alliance press release

On occasion of the general strike of the 19 March, Liberal Alliance (Greek Liberals) considers New Democracy's Government's, so-called, 'reform' to be nothing more than a half-baked feeble attempt.
The proposed Social Security Law neither deals with the problems at the core of the current system, nor will heal the pathology that will lead Social Security in Greece, towards insolvency.
Maintaining a Soviet type Social Security system perpetuates the suffocating handling of the State on any new, however merged, Pension Funds, and guarantees the continuing of the circle of their mismanagement and unaccountability.

At the same time Liberal Alliance condemns the Opposition parties as agents of blind reaction without the will or the ability to articulate a productive, positive vision and submit serious and viable counter- proposals for the Social Security.
A review of the other Political Parties proposals reveals that their proposals are nothing more than generalizing, and populist wishful thinking
This is the best proof that the current political establishment that has been for years focused on power sharing and not coming up with policies that will solve the citizens' problems.

As part of the public debate on Social Security, Liberal Alliance has submitted to the Greek Parliament and to the Greek Society, its proposals for this important issue, and will keep on propagating those as the changes currently contemplated by the Government, will not solve any of the grave Social Security problems.

Liberal Alliance will continue even after the parliamentary vote on this Law, to promote within the Greek Society its proposals for a capital-generating component within a composite
Social Security system.
This is a proposal that stems from examples from around the world and forms the basis for the reforms throughout Europe. It becomes increasingly apparent, that no other way can prove efficient and viable for the foreseeable future.