Μια χώρα δεν μπορεί να είναι εταιρία

Συνέντευξη της Άννας Διαμαντοπούλου με τίτλο «Μια χώρα δεν μπορεί να είναι εταιρία», δημοσιεύει η περιοδική έκδοση του Οικονομικού Ευρωπαϊκού Forum “Alpbach”. Μεταξύ άλλων η πρώην υπουργός αναφέρει πως «η Ελλάδα χρειάζεται χρόνο και εμπιστοσύνη για να πραγματοποιήσει τις απαραίτητες μεταρρυθμίσεις και όχι μόνο καταπίεση και απειλές από τους δανειστές. Σημείωσε ακόμα πως στη χώρα πρέπει να γίνουν πολλές αλλαγές που θα καταπολεμούν την διαφθορά και την ευνοιοκρατία που θα αναμορφώσουν το δημοκρατικό πολίτευμα. Ανέφερε ακόμα το παράδειγμα των εκπαιδευτικών μεταρρυθμίσεων που προσπάθησε να πραγματοποιήσει, δίνοντας ευκαιρίες και κίνητρα επιχειρηματικότητας σε νέους επιστήμονες και ερευνητές.

Ολόκληρη η συνέντευξη:

Alpbach News: You’re member of the PASOK since 1976. How does it feel being part of a system that caused the actual situation in Greece?

Anna Diamantopoulou: The governing parties have played the most important role. But they are not the only ones. Also the left parties have played a very important role in the syndicates, the universities and business world. It was the whole political system for more than 40 years. It’s not the right thing to delete the whole system because democracy can not go on without parties. Parties have to be evaluated for what they’ve done.

AN: A Greek friend said to me once: “We invented democracy and now we destroyed it.” Does democracy come to an end in Greece?

Diamantopoulou: Because of the crisis we had many problems with the right function of democracy. We have to reinvent the way democracy works. Crisis does not help at that particular moment but we have to give birth to something new concerning the political system and democracy itself.

AN: What could be new?

Diamantopoulou: Countries go forward and have peace, wealth and democracy not with the extremists. I believe there will be a totally new political scheme in Greece in two to four years. We need a new constitution, new parties, new rules in the parliament and a new organisation of the public sector.

AN: At the panal you mentioned that over 200 laws were passed within two years. Would this ever have been possible without the pressure of the EU?

Diamantopoulou: No. Greece has changed a lot because of the EU. But many things have happened because of the Euro and the cheap money. Without a threat we wouldn’t have got any money. But I don’t believe that this kind of strict pressure is the right thing. A country is not a company. You cannot restore a country and change the culture in two years. We need to have goals and commit ourselves in reforms but we also need trust and time.

AN: How would a good Greece look like in fife to ten years?

Diamantopoulou: My wish is that economy and democracy will work. That means that the country would be able to produce wealth. That’s the only way to pay back the money. There must be an end of corruption and cronyism.

AN: The young will be very important for the future but it is a mass phenomenon that well-educated graduates leave Greece.

Diamantopoulou: If we can’t stop the economical mortgagees to leave the country how can we persuade this young, brilliant people to stay? As a Minister of Education I tried to finance companies in order to recruit people from the universities. We need to give incentives for initiatives in research and innovation to keep young scientists.