Antonis Samaras’ Statements on Immigration

Following the fear-mongering statements by the Prime Minister Antonis Samaras in his pre-election speeches in Evros (05/01/2015) and Chalkida (07/01/2015) against “smuggled migrants” and granting Greek citizenship, we have discovered that:

1. He refuses to comprehend the difference between the term “refugee” and “immigrant”, while deliberately using the derogatory term “smuggled migrant” rather than the correct terms “irregular migrant” or “undocumented migrant”. At the same time, he ostentatiously ignores the fact that many immigrants have been legal residents in our country for many years, as well as the fact that refugees come to Greece because their lives are in danger.
2. He victimizes immigrants and refugees, equating them with terrorists and therefore a potential danger to the country, provocatively using hateful rhetoric.
3. He connects the massacre at the satirical newspaper Charlie Hebdo in France with immigration.

Mr. Samaras claims that granting citizenship may lead to similar attacks. The Prime Minister talks continuously about (not) granting citizenship to immigrants who have just arrived in the country. For Mr. Samaras’ information, none of these refugees ever asked for citizenship. The people who are claiming their right to citizenship are children of migrant origin who were born or raised in Greece. People like Giannis Antetokounmpo, with whom he had no problem being photographed at the Presidential Palace, where Samaras “declared” him Greek – something that Giannis had become long ago through his Greek education, not through becoming an NBA player. In particular, we wonder about Mr. Samaras’ contradictions, since last month a Minister from his government signed a bill for access to Greek citizenship for young people of migrant origin.

The Prime Minister’s aim should be social cohesion, but all that Mr. Samaras has been doing in the past few days is cultivating fear, intolerance, fear-mongering and racism.

As for the unacceptable and atrocious choice of the Prime Minister Antonis Samaras to use to his advantage the death of 12 French citizens, 12 of our fellow European citizens, we believe that he has already received the fitting and appropriate response from the French media.

As for the 3 perpetrators who killed 12 people in the name of Allah, they may be Muslims, but they are also French citizens. May we remind you that in 2011 in Norway, Breivik, a Christian Norwegian citizen murdered 77 people in the name of his ideology.

It is historically proven Mr. Samaras, that fanaticism always comes back as a boomerang.