PM inaugurates Museum of Democracy on Aghios Efstratios

[Ellinas]

Prime Minister Costas Karamanlis on Friday morning inaugurated the Museum of Democracy on the Aegean island of Aghios Efstratios, his third visit to the island in the last four years.

"Today we are together inaugurating the Democracy Museum, a work of memory and honour. The place that in the dark years of Greek history in the past century had housed the hospital of those displaced for their political beliefs - among them Yannis Ritsos, Menelaos Lountemis, Manos Katrakis, Titos Patrikios - is being preserved, highlighted and delivered to this generation and the next," the prime minister underlined.

Greece is now a democratic country with rule of law and that the 33 years since the restoration of democracy, all the political forces of the country had "succeeded in leaving behind the dividing lines and labels that had divided society and hurt the country", he added.

Karamanlis stressed, however, that the quality of democracy that Greece enjoys today and the national reconciliation, unity and unanimity of Greeks in the face of major and important issues is not and should not be considered self-evident.

"In order to reach this point, we had to all overcome bigotry and prejudice, to heal the wounds of decades, with responsible and visionary leaders from all sides making brave steps forward," he said, mentioning Andreas Papandreou, Harilaos Florakis, Panagiotis Kanellopoulos, Mikis Theodorakis, Leonidas Kyrkos and Ilias Iliou.

He also referred to the relation of trust that had to exist between citizens and politics. "We made a promise to change things, to give realistic and reliable solutions to the problems bequeathed from yesterday. I'm not saying that all was done perfectly, but I can look you in the eye and say that we have achieved many and important things. Every day that passes, our work improves the present and creates a better tomorrow," the premier said.

As an example, he mentioned the ferry connections to the island, saying that the situation here had improved and that procedures were currently underway to complete plans for enlarging and modernising its harbour and other projects planned for the island.

The prime minister departed for Aghios Efstratios on Thursday night from Salamina on the Navy frigate 'Psara', accompanied by Defence Minister Evangelos Meimarakis, Merchant Marine and Island Policy Minister George Voulgarakis and Culture Minister Mihalis Liapis.

During the trip, he observed navy exercises and dined with the sailors, while at 8:15 in the morning he dropped a wreath in the sea at the point where an airman had been lost.

He was received at the harbour of Aghios Efstratios by the community leader, residents and school children and then briefed on the island's problems. The prime minister visited the island's nursery and primary school, the gymnasium and lyceum, presented the children with PCs, a projector and a home cinema kit and then had a coffee at the coffee shop in the island's main village before his departure for Athens.

ANA