GOAL NEWS

Captain, your legacy is… a blessing!

The great career of Giorgos Karagounis with the national team has ended, but his legacy will always be with us.

An ode to Giorgos Karagounis from the French ‘Equipe’: ‘The Greek that lived it all’

 

ESTIA

The contribution of foreign coaches

It would be also beneficial for public governance
 

In 2004 under the guidance of the German coach Otto Rehhagel the national team of Greece took part in the European championship, ‘Euro 2004’ which took place in Portugal. And after successive victorious results conquered first place and the European cup.

In 2014 under the guidance of the Portuguese coach Fernando Santos, our national team reached the ‘16’ of the World Cup for the first time in its history. And it was eliminated the day before yesterday in a thrilling match which ended with penalties. The national team left the World Cup with its head held high.

In both instances a decisive role in the course of the Greek team was played by the foreign coaches.

[…]

Immediately following Greece’s triumph in the ‘Euro 2004’, Estia had published a provocative article with the title ‘Rehhagel also in governance’. And it maintained that the lesson of the first place in Portugal was that non-Greeks could be used for the restructuring of Greek governance which was then as well the main problem in the country. Some chuckled at that article while others thought that it was ‘unpatriotic’. How was it possible – they said – to turn the running of the country over to foreigners – eg the Germans?

And yet, that which in 2004 appeared unthinkable, in the end happened in 2010 and in a manner that was obligatory. If we had attempted it earlier ourselves, delegating willingly to foreign experts and consultants the restructuring of Greek governance, we would have probably avoided all of the dramas of 2009 and 2010 which forced us in face of bankruptcy to resort not only to foreign expertise but also foreign custody.

However that custody, despite the suffering which it held for a great portion of Greek citizens, at least corrected many of the bad practices of the past. Whatever positive from the point of view of reforms and modernisation that has happened over the past four years is due mainly to the Troika. Even interventions which were evidently necessary were not implemented in the past because the domestic political system refused to shoulder the political cost. And those eventually happened under the pressure and the Damoclean sword of the Troika.

So on the occasion of the exceptional showing of the Greek national football team at the Brazilian World Cup we pose the following question:

– Why, that which we accept with such ease for football – that is entrusting foreign coaches with the management of even our national team – do we reject it for whatever has to do with the organisation of the country?

– Why do Mr Tsipras and the leadership of SYRIZA not protest against entrusting German and Portuguese coaches for the Greek team, but move heaven and earth when non-Greeks attempt to help us stand on our feet?

 

 

EFIMERIDA TON SYNTAKTON

Non-safety net

The joint ministerial decree for the medicines for the uninsured

With a 113 or 170 euro per head annual contribution, the government is displaying ‘social sensitivity’ without providing even aspirin to impoverished patients.

The rights of the insured are being granted to uninsured citizens – permanent and legal residents of Greece – with the joint ministerial decree which was signed yesterday by the three competent ministries and which was a troika demand.

Together with the rights, however, they acquired the obligation to put their hands deep in their pockets, like the insured, as the average contribution of a citizen to pharmaceutical costs is estimated to have reached 32% of the total!

To beneficiaries of the measure it corresponds to 113-170 euros per person, per year, an amount which may not meet their needs, but serves the interests of the pharmaceutical industry. The amount corresponds to 55% of the European average.

RIZOSPASTIS

‘Survival’ with 13.1 euros a day for a family of four!

That is what is provided for by the infamous ‘minimum guaranteed income’

Within the next 10 days the Joint Decision of the Labour and Finance Ministries will be published to establish the ‘minimum guaranteed income’ which has already been adopted by 26 of the 28 member states of the EU.

The details which are not coming to light confirm the appraisal that the ‘minimum guaranteed income’ is not intended to counter extreme poverty but to conceal it.

It will become a ‘vehicle’ for further elimination of so-called social benefits which remain, for even greater pressure on wages and for a further broadening of the elastic labour relations. It will be used to further lower the bar regarding the needs of the working class family, with the logic of the ‘lesser evil’.

IMERISIA

Crash test with the Public Power Corporation (DEI)

Tomorrow the draft legislation will be submitted to parliament

  • The sale of 30% of the enterprise divides
  • Unions threaten blackouts
  • Evangelos Venizelos and Antonis Samaras reach an agreement over minor improvements in the legislation
  • Guarantees will be given to local communities
  • DEI will receive the amount paid for the ‘little DEI’


The views of the Prime Minister and Deputy PM of the coalition government are converging over the issues of the draft legislation regarding the sale of the ‘little DEI’. In a yesterday meeting they agreed to provide guarantees to local communities while sending a message to whomever is planning to plunge the country into darkness that they will not allow for there to be consequences for the population from potential strike actions.