S. LAMBRINIDIS: ...and the referendum is absolutely the right thing to do in a democracy, we are democracies after all. And it is the right thing to do in order to safeguard Europe, in addition to Greece, from all these rumours, all these destructive rumours that have been going around for years, and every time after a major European decision, by parts of the markets that are committed to shoot it down. So, in other words, even this last decision, the very positive one, last Thursday, that gave Greece the breathing space in order to apply all the measures that we are committed to applying to changing the country, and we still are and we always will be, that decision, a couple of days later began again to be doubted by analysts that said that it wasn’t enough and we have seen, quite frankly, this movie played a number of times before.
JOURNALIST: But you have just made it worse by calling a referendum. We have seen the reaction on the markets which was dire and people are now incredibly uncertain.
S. LAMBRINIDIS: Not at all in my view. I think that we intend to give once and for all an answer. The Greek government is committed to making changes. The Greek government, the Greek people are grateful for the support they are receiving and they know the changes they have to make. The Greek people are committed Europeans, committed to the Euro, committed certainly to the stability of their deposits in the banks, to the stability of their salaries being paid. They are committed in other words, to something that many people have been doubting for a long time, and so this will be a way, for Greece at least, to once and for all give an answer to all these rumors and it is imperative for Europe to be able to do so collectively. We cannot continue taking extremely important decisions that move us closer economically, in addition to monetarily, because we have the Euro but we don’t have the economic union yet and have everyone in the next day, anonymous people around the world, doubting our commitment.
JOURNALIST: It’s difficult to do that, to focus on growth, when people are completely unsure as to whether Greece will end up accepting the terms of the bailout, whether the public will reject it, whether the money should flow from the stability fund, whether those loans, the 50% write-off of the debt, whether that should go ahead. There is just uncertainty now.
S. LAMBRINIDIS: I understand your question but let me give you the following answer. Greece has proven up to now, although scarcely reported, that not only does it respect the terms of the bailout but it has been applying them in ways that no other democracy in such a short period of time has been forced to apply. From cuts in salaries and pensions, from rehauling the pension system in Greece in only one year, from not replacing more than 150.000 public employees who left their jobs, from making tax and all the other changes we have which are proof that not only do we not have the political will but, on the contrary, we have the capacity and the ability to make changes. And yet, every time those changes happen they tend to be flooded under a speculation of our inability to get things done, of Europe’s inability to get its house in order etc, etc.
JOURNALIST: If you are doing it anyway, you just listed all the things you are doing, then why do you need a referendum?
S. LAMBRINIDIS: Because there is a new loan agreement that is being agreed upon, with a number of terms and because it is extremely important finally to put an end to this negative speculation and to allow, in a democracy, for the people to express their view. In my view, it’s going to be a positive view and to be able through that to end once and for all the doubts about either the Greek government’s ability to apply measures or the Greek people’s wisdom, although they are suffering tremendously. That is also something that has not been adequately taken into account. There is a continuous rhetoric of punishment against Greece. We are committed to applying all the measures we promised to our partners and we are doing it. We are not shirking that at all, not for a second.
JOURNALIST: And just briefly, if you lose this referendum, then what?
S. LAMBRINIDIS: I don’t expect that we will lose this referendum.
JOURNALIST: But if you do?
S. LAMBRINIDIS: I don’t expect that we will.
JOURNALIST: Ok, Stavros Lambrinidis, Foreign Minister of Greece, thank you very much indeed for joining us.
November 2, 2011