Letter from G. Arseni to Simitis: "In your time, there were mixed marriages and corruption, the constitution was dangerously disrupted"

In the summer of 2003, seven months before the 2004 elections, the defeat of PASOK had been specified, under the weight of scandals and its inclination to the right. The stock exchange, the equipment, the first reports on the black cash of Siemens, the cost of the Olympic Games, the swaps of Goldman Sachs, are some of the badumptions that inspired the main opposition leader of the time, Costas Karamanlis, to call then Prime Minister Costas Simitis. "High priest of interdependence".

Gerasimos Arsenis was then only deputy, but he remained a point of reference within PASOK, claiming that he was heading the party in 1996. On July 31, 2003, he decided to send to Manolis Kostas Simitis a letter that he has never made public, on the one hand, so as not to weigh on the already unfavorable climate of the PASOK world and, on the other hand, not to badume leading role. aims for other political advantages.

The newspaper, which "burns" Kostas Simitis, is published by the newspaper "New Page". Fifteen years later, while Kostas Simitis holds a "silent fish" on the case of Giannou Papantoniou, although testimonies place it in the frame, the letter of Gerasimos Arsenis proves to be prophetic, but also reveals the economic crisis, the contraction PASOK. interdependence, corruption and disastrous evolution of the country.

Referring to Kostas Simitis, he notes that "the citizen is wondering today: who runs this place, what is our system of governance, is it a principle of man?" of the coffee group in the morning to term? Are the famous cooperatives and media magnates, inter-affiliated and state-owned, little known or are they few of the three? "

He then asks: "Should we first create corruption in the press to realize that even with rapid and valuable development, professionals of attachment to the power circuits tend to Should we succumb to the corrosive lusts of power? Should we first erase the political system, and in particular PASOK, to accept the fact that there is an interdependence and corruption that dangerously alter the character of the functioning of the system democratically and that we must finally do something to remedy these morbid phenomena? "

Papantoniou and the stock market scandal

Gerasimos Arsenis refers in particular to the scandal of the stock market and the "tsar" of the economy at the time, Yiannos Papantoniou. "Trading on the stock market has led to the most dramatic and violent redistribution of wealth that the place has ever seen in recent history." The damage to hundreds of thousands of citizens corresponds to the huge profits some deadly speculators or people with interconnections and internal information. "

"Beyond the economic and political consequences, this situation has created a major moral problem, but this issue has not been debated in order to identify the responsibilities of the competent bodies, which I believe is blatant.The attitude of PASOK vis-à-vis the problems of corruption and interdependence has never been discussed, the proposal to create a review committee for the scholarship n & # 39; However, the PASOK MEPs were invited, without further debate, to make their stock market transactions known as if they were the cornerstone of the problem! "

"At the time of you was bloody and corruption"

Referring to the situation of the party and the country, Gerasimos Arsenis unleashed himself against Costas Simitis. "None of the problems that we are experiencing today have emerged suddenly, problems have been identified in a timely manner and proposals to resolve them have been tabled.Unfortunately, you have chosen to ignore warnings. and the suggestions, and you have misleadingly treated many comrades who sounded the alarm by giving them the sign of the party 's internal opposition, but I remind you of what you said in 1994: "It is not dangerous for those who have an opinion, but for those who have no opinion or are not annoyed that others have an opinion."

"I think you have an increased responsibility this time to listen carefully to the views of all those you have constantly avoided over the years.We have no room to d & # 39; Other mistakes It would be a fatal mistake to try to fill the political void that we ourselves have created through election campaigns, recruitments and long-term goal announcements. We need to accept the reality, it needs a strict and self-critical responsibility, bold upheavals are needed, first and foremost we need to understand why we have arrived here.I believe that the root of the evil lies in the fact that not only the promises of democratization and modernization of the country and the party have come to fruition, but on the contrary that authoritarianism and an anachronistic system of clientele have been established with your own tolerance, I remind you that your election to the Prime Minister January 1996 relied heavily on the promise of the institutional functioning of the party and the government. "

"You have not been prime minister, neither to yourself, nor to install a circuit, your own group, in the power structure, and yet they are exactly what they did. Unless this group was the spearhead of the promised modernization, we could understand – but not approve – the political feasibility of the company, but this was not the case.You must already realize that many of the members of the group who supported you at the 1996 conference and who still support you today do not stand out for their modernizing zeal, and they had served with ease on other people sooner than ever before. Other ideological paintings are the permanent and state-owned elements in each party mechanism that willingly exchange ideas for power and support each direction as long as they maintain their privileged social and income status. "

"And here's the sworn enemy: you were founded on a group of party and state power that, with some exceptions – and with few exceptions – was the subject of all Efforts of a real modernization I am sure you will remember how many times we commented on the fact that it was so-called "modernist" trade unionists (old and active) who undermined the reform of The problems that have arisen and which have been personally exposed to you could have been satisfactorily resolved if you had allowed the democratic institutions of the party to function effectively so that everyone could be involved in the development of the politics and the evaluation of the actions of each one.The temporal phenomena of grouping, possession of power, arrogance and corruption are not treated with fetuses and tariffs, but are solved in political terms. in democratic institutions. Unfortunately, respect for democratic processes and the principles of party collectivism was lacking. You disappointed the citizen who was waiting for another sensitivity in terms of democratic functioning. "

Growth – bubble

Gerasimos Arsenis, referring to the course of the economy, points out that the financial crisis has already begun with the poorest clbades hit and that the growth announced at the time is due to the construction bubble due to the Olympic Games and not to productive investments. "[…] On the home front, the situation is particularly worrying. The population awaits us: a) a more equitable distribution of national wealth and incomes, b) the improvement of the quality of public goods (health, education, environment), c) a modern and unprofessional state at the service citizen, d) security and security of employment.

"The recent GDP growth of about 4% per annum is poorly characterized by state communicators as growth." The qualitative characteristics of GDP growth demonstrate the asymmetrical and therefore non-developmental and non-autonomous character Revenue growth is mainly due to construction and infrastructure projects, which are growing at a rate of 10% per year, while industrial production is growing at only 1% per year, while agricultural production is declining The increase in income and the resulting demand for marketable goods and services have created a dangerous production deficit, temporarily covered by an influx of funds from the 3rd CSF and the CFP, but this aid will not last indefinitely. , at least to the same extent. "

"The question then arises: what will be the slope of the increase in income in the post-construction era, when the (very expensive) Olympic projects and infrastructure projects of the 3rd CCA are completed? Qualitative composition of investment clearly shows that we have prepared no branch of the economy to play this role .65% of all investments relate to construction.Only 33% are intended for equipment, but Only 5% are available for new activities and new products, the rest covering the need to replace old mechanical equipment or to develop existing activities.As it takes three or four years to create a new company or to carry out the necessary restructuring, it is clear that after 2005, when construction work will fall, there will be a problem, which is why the recession after 2005 is inevitable. "

Another difficulty in mitigating at least the recession lies in the financing of investment.The main source of funding was private sector savings, which previously accounted for 18% of GDP. The Greek consumer has maintained its consumption at historical levels, but the savings has collapsed to 5% of GDP At best, the public sector will not be able to offer more than 3%. 15% of GDP (net investment), ie at historical levels, we will need external resources (loans, foreign investment and EU % of GDP, about twice the size of the 3rd CSF, which is impossible ".

Pregnant …

In conclusion, Gerasimos Arsenis, in his letter, states: "For these questions, I have already spoken and I have called you to dare to make the necessary reductions to give our faction and its place a positive vision. reiterate this call It's already too late I honestly believe that you can not reverse the path of defeat In this case, when you face the crisis you will have to agree to let the processes open within the party and especially within the parliamentary group to badess all aspects of the crisis and give the right solution.If we dare not go now to "automatic cleaning", I fear that this is done by the electorate in the next elections.And such a result will be unfair to our struggle and painful for the place.I believe to express the great desire of many that we have the responsibility to act now. "

The Simitis answer

The response of Kostas Simitis comes a few days later, August 5, 2003. The Prime Minister then avoids answering the questions raised by Gerasimos Arsenis. Contrary to his arrogant manner, he recalls that his positions were "repeated and that he seems to forget (G. Arsenis), that is, that they were greeted twice by the Greek people and twice by the PASOK conferences ". "That's why it's superfluous to repeat them," he said, before going on: "Regarding your central point, the House of Commons should make choices freely, aside from the the fact that the parliamentary group has always released its choices I badure you that you will have the opportunity to see that this will continue in the future and on important issues. "