An illness has kept Crete away from Dora Bakoyannis but even from a distance she was present at the ET-Forum: “CRETE 2030” and said important things about Crete and the political scene.
The N.D. Chania MP and former minister said: “Crete has been wronged for too many decades. We all felt it. It was necessary for this government to come in to put forward major projects that should have been done long ago. We paid dearly and in blood for the lack of a road network in Crete. At last the BOAK is finally underway. Now Cretans know that it will become a reality. But we also have other projects such as the big project to connect the airport with the BOAK because the airport of Chania will be upgraded. We also have smaller but important roads that are being built and now there are villages that now have access. Work is being done and this must continue so that Crete can really make the huge development leap that it can and must make. It lacked both the will and the money in the past, but above all the will.
For many years the PASOK governments took Crete for granted and the ND governments were unable to move forward. Crete is now the priority of the government. It is a region that has given Greece so much and it is time for Greece to respond to the needs of Crete. It is certain that Crete’s tourism can go far beyond Majorca. The goal is for us to become a region that is the absolute leader and the envy of the world. The quality of life in Crete cannot be compared. The pace is different, the possibilities you have are different, the people are different. There is not the misery and misery that exists in other regions. And that’s because people are having a good time. Of course they have problems but the feeling is that if you live in Crete you are fine. Crete is a magnet for investors and in the next ten years you will be rubbing your eyes.”
Speaking about agricultural cooperatives, he stressed meaningfully: “The key word is cooperative. These cooperatives after a long period of humiliating the Cretan farmer must be active again on new bases because only then will the Cretan farmer have a future.”
On the political scene, he said:The New Democracy will fight the battle of self-reliance. It is our obligation and we owe it to Greece to fight to win again. There will always be grumbling. I’ve been in the Southwest for 35 years; 35 years of grumbling. When we go into battle we go into battle and we go into battle with the best possible omens. Unfortunately for democracy there has to be essentially another proposal for governance and the opposition does not have it. They are arguing in the opposition about who will be second. I don’t know who will be second but it matters who wins to govern. The Greeks will be thinking at the polls about who they want at the helm at a critical time, who will take over the presidency of Europe, who is the one who did what he told them and who will do what he told them to do. The elections will be judged by our own credibility and our struggle to appeal to people who are frustrated to convince them that the New Democracy can.”
About the autobiographical book he is working on, he said:“It is very difficult to write a book. I lived through many phases of Greece on a personal level either dictatorships or terrorism so it will be interesting. It will be a personal narrative. In the autumn you will be able to read it and judge it.”
