'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.