“PASOK-ND coalition government inevitable”

Deputy Defense minister and Athens candidate MP Giannis Ragoussis expressed the opinion that if the political system is not built from scratch, cheap rhetoric will win over and “Greece will default, exit the Eurozone and crumble with incalculable national, financial and social consequences.”

- You supported a different frame of action and even voted for the amendment regarding the financing of parties. Why didn’t you pass it through when you were at the ministry of Internal Affairs?

For me, not to vote for an unreasonably fragmentary amendment about party financing was a matter of ethics, and I am truly afraid that it was also a bullet to the heart of the already injured relationship the citizens and the political system share. When I was at the ministry of Internal Affairs, not only did I take an initiative that resulted in the 3870 law, whereby the pre-election financing of mayors and prefects was fully purged, but also I completed a bill concerning 75 rigid changes in party financing already since May 2011. So, my conscience is clear and my job was done on time. I am not the one to say what did or didn't happen after that, mainly because the reshuffle followed. In any case, these elections could be a step towards going public and we politicians, along with the parties, should be obliged to post our campaign costs on the web, so that, the Greek citizen can know more about our income. This way, both the Greek citizens and the parties would be relieved of 50% of the burden of pre-election campaign funds though a ban that we could have enacted regarding the shifting of voters who are registered elsewhere.