The Alternate Minister of National Defence Panos Rigas, in an interview he gave to the EPIKAIRA magazine and to the journalist Georgia Sadana, mentioned the following:

– What does the fact that the Governmental Council on Foreign Policy and National Defence convened, mean in relation to the Turkish provocative stance? What are the possibilities of a hot incident?

Before I answer the essence of your question, I would like to mention the whole background of the story, which arises from the propaganda mechanisms of the New Democracy party and its contributors, who talk about “dramatisation” of the situation on behalf of the government, insinuating that the situation is not that grave. At the same time, they more or less dispute the government’s right to call the most competent instrument to convene, the Governmental Council on Foreign Policy and National Defence, in order to examine the shaping situation because of the Turkish provocations and violations.

I call them to grow up because they harm the country. Not everything should be sacrificed for the sake of the campaign. Now, to the core of the matter. The Governmental Council on Foreign Policy and National Defence, chaired by the Prime Minister, estimated the data – diplomatic and military – and determined the roadmap of our own movements. We have a powerful political – diplomatic arsenal and we are not the ones who are going to fall in the trap of militarisation and tension escalation.

We stand against the Turkish provocations with composure and decisiveness. Enhanced by our deterrent force and the country’s political assets at an international level, as it has been shaped through our participation in wider and local alliances and collaborations, but mainly by our role as a factor of stability in the wider region. Regarding the possibility of a “hot incident”, the goal is to leave no margin for the utilisation of such an incident as an accomplished fact, by the other side. And I do not refer to any happenchance but to preplanned incidents which aim to produce certain results.

 – Do you believe that the diplomatic initiatives at a European and international level are able to smooth things over?

I would like to repeat what I stated earlier, that we utilise our political – diplomatic assets in combination with our deterrent force. I believe that it has become clear, now more than ever, at the level of our European partners as well as of our NATO allies, what is really at stake. The Turkish provocative stance does not solely concern Greece and Cyprus, but it extends against the European system of security, energy and otherwise. Europe and the West in general, cannot be a hostage of the goals and plans of a group of people holding sway over Turkey.

Of course, we wish for the internationalisation of the problems faced by Cyprus and Greece because of the Turkish provocations to act as a factor of normalisation and to balance the situation instead of escalating it, in a field like the wider region of the Eastern Mediterranean, which is already heated with tensions and war conflicts. 

–The major opposition accuses you that you use the Turkish provocations in favour of your campaign. What is your answer?

I would rather avoid giving further answers on this issue. I would just urge the leadership and the members of the New Democracy party to set some limits, in the way they deal with the matter, because they are running the risk of harming the nation. Not everything should be sacrificed for the sake of elections. The country and its needs on security are constant and it must also have future prospects. We are witnessing the representatives of the New Democracy party acting like beginners who vie for power.

–Do you thing that the first place in the elections is feasible for SYRIZA – Progressive Alliance on 7 July? Is abstention or the major opposition your main opponent?

We move towards the national elections, starting from scratch. The speed with which each side will move is an issue which will be judged presently. However, the ballot boxes, in the morning of Sunday 7 July, will be empty. We apparently have received the message from the European Parliament Elections, however there is a momentum amongst the voters which will manifest depending on the mobilisation of all those people who are disgruntled because of the general state of things, but they can determine who led to disaster and who reversed the situation. So, we promote the dominant stake of the ballot box, by raising the issue in an imperative manner.

In a scene mainly befogged by a coordinated effort to distort reality on behalf of the front against SYRIZA, we are fighting to set the record straight and give the people the chance to judge and compare based on actual facts. The true and dominant stake is whether the country and society will continue to head on a course of recovery from the grave crisis or if we will fall back in the chasm, led by those who caused the disaster in the first place. That would be a historic slip-up for the country, a blow to the people, the sacrifices and the effort they made all these years.

–You are a candidate at the Western Sector of the Athens B Constituency. What are the problems which must immediately be resolved in the area?

The Western Sector of the Athens B Constituency, which contains the working-class districts which extend beyond the western shore of the Kifisos River, is the cradle of the Attica Basin. At this region, the first station of the great internal migration in the decades after the war, was installed. It was from this region that the great population growth of the Capital began. It is the place, the great embrace which contains various financial classes of society, workers, clerks, unemployed, self-employed, young scientists, small businessmen. They experienced the financial crisis violently and aggressively, but they held fast and now are fighting for the next day. The problems they face have an immediate relation with the improvement of their lives, at a financial level as well as at the level of quality of life determined by the environment. We are fighting so that these two basic components will acquire a new momentum.

– Western Athens was very favourable to SYRIZA in previous elections. Do you believe that your party will preserve its force in the western districts?

All the regions where the hearts of the everyday people beat are favourable to SYRIZA, its ideals and its concerns. We listen closely to the concerns and pursuits of Western Athens’ inhabitants, because we live among them and we are a part of them. The preservation and the enhancement of the forces of SYRIZA in the region is not just an electoral bet, but a political assurance for the next day.