Press Review June 19: Artful dodgers

Evidence for criminal wrongdoing on the part of the the Deputy PM is shelved following the parliamentary shutdown; a former MP candidate for Golden Dawn provides damning testimony against the party; the Chinese premier arrives in the country to further economic ties; Greece is considered a crossroads for heroin; and foreign investors set their sights on 150 Greek companies.

The Press Project
19 Ιουνίου 2014 | 11:51:15

	EFIMERIDA TON SYNTAKTON The lords of case dismissals The casefile against Venizelos is shelved following closure of parliament Sins are waived over the Memorandum, PSI, arms procurement programs, submarines and Lagarde List. An unprecedented attack by Venizelos on the prosecutors. A storm has been provoked by the revelation that the Prime Minister’s office issued the order for the shutdown of the plenary session of parliament in June on exactly the same day that the case file was submitted to parliament regarding the German submarines which contains evidence of potential criminal responsibilities of the president of PASOK [Evangelos Venizelos] and the former Finance Minister Giorgos Papaconstantinou. SYRIZA has spoken of the ‘epitome of parliamentary and government whitewashing’ while an enraged statement issued by Evangelos Venizelos unleashed an unprecedented attack on the Judiciary.
	ELEFTHEROTYPIA Testimony against Golden Dawn Greek prosecutors have in their hands damning testimony according to which the attacks on immigrants are characterized as a ‘badge of honour’ while it is also said that the ‘aim of Golden Dawn is a change in the system of government’. That is the testimony of a former MP candidate of Golden Dawn in 2012 who testified voluntarily to magistrates in order to talk about the activity of Golden Dawn.
	NAFTEMPORIKI 19 Agreements worth 6.5 billion euros between Greece and China The Chinese Prime Minister Li Keqiang will arrive today in the country for a three-day visit with the funding taps open towards the shipping and other sectors. He will seek to close all of the ‘open’ fronts regarding the port of Piraeus, and to confirm the interest his country has in investing in a number of other sectors. His programme includes the signing of a total of 19 Sino-Greek agreements worth over 6.4 billion euros. Wishing to stress the key role of China in large investment programmes which are currently underway, Prime Minister Antonis Samaras will today have one-on-one talks will Li Keqiang. Eight of the agreements worth 4.6 billion euros regard shipping and the remainder are in the energy sector, real estate, wine, oil etc.
	KATHIMERINI Greece is considered a crossroads for heroin Greek and international agencies combating drug trafficking consider Greece to be a crossroads in the heroin trade. It is believed that 60-65 tonnes of heroin pass through our country and South Eastern Europe, chiefly from Afghanistan and with countries in central and Western Europe the final destination.
	IMERISIA PricewaterhouseCoopers study: Foreign investors have their sights on 150 Greek companies “A year ago the phone would never ring. Today more and more and looking for opportunities in Greece,” the head of PwC stated. The value of buyouts and mergers which were completed in the first five months of 2014 comes to 3.4 billion, an amount which surpasses the corresponding value for the entirety of 2013, according to a study by PwC.