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M. Schoinas-14th SW Conference: To stand against authoritarian neighbors, supposedly authoritarian friends and extremists

The vice-president of the European Commission, Margaritis Schoinas, ascending the podium of the ND conference, referred to the previous conference on Sunday, December 1, 2019.

“That 13th Congress marked for Greece the end of a difficult decade and at the same time the beginning of a new era with New Democracy standing up again victorious. That Sunday was also the first day of the term of the new European Commission that started with a strong wind. in conditions of stability and growth “, he stressed and referred to what followed the next 30 months, typically saying that it looks like a science fiction scenario.

“A pandemic, the instrumentalization of immigration, the crisis in the Aegean and now the war in Ukraine. underlined.

“The deniers, the Cassandres and the conspiracy theorists do not want us to remember how we did it,” he continued.

Mr. Schoinas referred to the largest vaccination program in the history of mankind with over 5 billion doses, the mobility certificate issuing more than 1 billion documents to the Recovery Fund. He recalled the border crisis and how “on that damn Clean Monday of 2020 we brought – for the first time in the history of the institutions – all the EU leadership to Evros, on the field, outside the Brussels offices, raising the European shield against the methodical hybrid threat “.

He also spoke about the decongestion of our islands and how “on the ashes of the shame of Moria we created modern European structures 100% financed by European funds”.

He also referred to the tension in the Aegean and the Eastern Mediterranean in the summer of 2020 and how “we achieved at the highest European level the formation of a convincing framework of sanctions and incentives, which with the relevant international alliances – but also the determination of the country’s Armed Forces, returned Turkish research vessels back to their ports “.

Finally, he spoke about the battle that the European family is waging with its allies in America and Asia against the horrors of war.

“Yes, friends, we have succeeded in all this. And it was Europe that succeeded together with Greece. By the force of law, not by the law of force”, stressed the Vice President of the Commission, noting that in the critical moments there is room for complacency. The bar of expectations – he continued – is now very high and there is no more room for hesitation, controversy, quarrels and disagreements.

“Citizens demand unity in action and bold decisions. Especially now that we are approaching the crucial summit at the end of the month for collective action on energy prices, there is no other way than a common, convincing European response,” he said.

At the same time, he stressed the need for greater political legitimacy of the European leadership.

“A Union that buys collective vaccines, arms and tomorrow natural gas and oil. Borrows together to finance the recovery. Has the largest market, the deepest democracy and the second currency in the world. This new Europe of action must be It also has the power to legitimize it by the will of the people, not by closed-door decisions and bargaining, and the 2024 European elections and the recent European Parliament proposals in this direction offer us a unique political opportunity to take the EU out of Brussels. “I wish and hope that they will be discussed in our country inside and outside the Greek Parliament,” he added.

In addition, he noted that for Greece there are lessons from what we have experienced in the last two and a half years, “because they mean the absolute justification but at the same time the highest responsibility to defend the principles and values ​​represented by our great, historic faction.”

He added: “Justification because we fought and overcame the crises not only ourselves but with the multiplier power that our position in the hard core, the first gear of the EU and the eurozone, gives us. “The accident of history. With the moral support that comes from our democratic state. With a human center, without leaving anyone behind.”

At the same time, however, he said that they also mean responsibility because “the preservation of our European way of life is neither self-evident nor given facts” and “we must build continuous defenses against the multiple threats that are posed to us”.

He added: “Let us stand, let us continue to stand proudly, firmly, clearly in front of: Authoritarian neighbors. To supposedly authoritarian friends, populists of the extremists. The populists of the extremists. “To turn us into divisive and ideological choices. To all those who want Greece encircled, small and phobic, not wide-angle, strong and European. This is the legacy of the Founder of the New Democracy. We do not forget it, we do not hand it over to its deniers.”

Margaritis Schoinas also mentioned, among other things, that Kyriakos Mitsotakis is without a doubt the most central and most important prime minister of the EPP political family.

“A leader who rules without the messianisms of the past and who is recognized in Europe as a reliable protagonist, shaper and inspirer of critical European decisions. We walk with the power of our ideas, principles and positions that have been justified by history.

“And finally we walk with the unshakable conviction that the difficult are behind us and the best is ahead of us”, he added.

Concluding his speech, he said that in this last Congress before the next elections, “we are all fighting together for a Europe of solutions and not of counterclaims, for a Greece that believes, wants and can, for a Greece of self-confidence, progress and cohesion, that unites us, that we want and that we deserve “.

Source: Capital

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