Giannis Vardakastanis, the new secretary of PASOK, has in the past made some very flattering comments about the government of New Democracy and Kyriakos Mitsotakis.
A few days ago, Yiannis Vardakastanis was elected the new secretary of PASOK, a development that surprised no one, as the executive is one of Nikos Androulakis‘s closest associates. And the Charilaou Trikoupis party may consider itself to be running a tough opposition against Kyriakos Mitsotakis, but its new secretary was speaking highly of the current government.
Giannis Vardakastanis is also president of the National Confederation of People with Disabilities. In this context, in the past he made some very positive announcements about the government of Kyriakos Mitsotakis and its works for people with disabilities.
For example, in 2022, when the disability card was implemented by the government of the New Democracy, the new secretary of PASOK said that it is a reform that the federation has been asking for many years, which does justice to and facilitates people with disabilities. In fact, he stressed that no other government since 1991, apparently including the PASOK governments, had put this reform into practice.
As his statement explained, “The implementation of the disability card, first proposed by the NSAMEA in 1991, is the full vindication of the disability movement’s position that it should have identity characteristics. The card provides the possibility of displaying the data and characteristics of the holder, while ensuring the protection of sensitive personal data. Thus, we put an end to the public use of the disability certificate for over 500,000 Persons with Disabilities and Chronic Diseases in our country. It is with great pleasure and vindication that the disability card is now the dignity card for each and every one of us.”
In fact, the federation was also in favour of the digital disability register, another regulation of the Mitsotakis government. As he said, “it is a profound reform for the country.”
Praise for the government
The new green secretary praised the government of Kyriakos Mitsotakis and even in very positive terms for what it is doing for people with disabilities. Among other things, he argued that the Greek disability card introduced by the government is the most advanced card in all of Europe and even called it a dignity card.
As he said, “The Disability Card had been legislated since 1996, but until July 2022 no government had decided that this card should have identification features. The Greek Disability Card is the most advanced in all of Europe and perhaps the world and can show the way to the European Disability Card. Only two European countries, Germany and Spain, have disability cards with identification features. For us this card is a card of dignity and so it should be embraced by all Greeks with disabilities. Because for us and for me, the use of the certificate and personal data as a reclamation ceases, as until today, in order to prove that we are People with Disabilities, we had to show our disability certificates and our personal data.”
And the truth is that the government of Kyriakos Mitsotakis, in the framework of the national strategy for people with disabilities, has made very big changes for the benefit of these fellow citizens. Changes that had to be made for decades, all of them have been implemented by the current government and it has received many times the congratulations from the current secretary of PASOK, as well as from other associations for the rights of people with disabilities.
Maybe Nikos Androulakis, who sees everything black and has an obsession with denial and nihilism, will learn something from all this. Because the praise for the Mitsotakis government is given by one of the most important members of his party apparatus and even for a particularly sensitive issue.
