EU Commission first VP Frans Timmermans, the Party of European Socialists’ (PES) candidate for Commission, spoke in Athens on Sunday at a closely watched conference by the Kinima Allagis party, a social democrat grouping mostly composed of the once-dominant PASOK party.
In speaking after party president Fofi Gennimata, Timmermans first paid homage to his hosts by comparing three-time Greek PM and PASOK founder Andreas Papandreou with European socialist and social democrat “heavyweights” Willy Brandt and François Mitterrand.
Turning to today’s political reality, both in Greece and Europe, Timmermans underlined that the Greek people have greatly suffered from the economy crisis, but remain standing. He added that austerity must now end in order for Greece and other European country to “dash to the future”.
