The National Health System, improved workers’ rights, rising living standards – just some of the achievements of Andreas Papandreou hailed today by Frans Timmermans, who was attending a celebration in Athens to mark the 100th anniversary of the birth of the three-time Greek Prime Minister and founder of PASOK.
The PES Common Candidate said:
“If Andreas Papandreou, together with Georgios Gennimatas, was able to introduce universal healthcare, able to introduce the protection of workers’ rights, able to introduce decent salaries, a social market economy, in a country so badly hit by military regime as Greece. If they were able to take Greece into the European communities, if they could do that then, we are also able to strengthen Greece today.
“It’s time we make global companies, who make billions in profits in Europe, pay taxes. It’s time that we finally introduced a minimum wage in every member state of the European Union. It’s time we started creating jobs for our youngest generation, because it keeps me awake at night that so many young people are unemployed. Whatever we do in politics, we should be doing it for them. We can do this, we can do this.”
Frans Timmermans travelled to the Greek capital as part of his campaign to become the next President of the European Commission. The visit followed campaigning this weekend in Helsinki, where he attended the Young European Socialists Congress, and Munich, where he visited BMW.
Next week the PES Common Candidate will travel to Vienna, Berlin and Warsaw.