PM to ministers: Be patient

(ANA-MPA) -- Prime Minister George Papandreou on Wednesday urged the members of his government to "arm themselves with patience and determination", stressing that the government was "running a marathon".

Addressing a meeting of the cabinet, he said that he had personally armed himself with both these qualities and called on his ministers and deputy ministers to do the same and inspire the same attitude in the public.

With a message of encouragement, the prime minister said that Greece was approaching the end of the recession but noted that this would not mean the end of the crisis or the problems.

"It is an important step toward relief so that we can fight the battles from better positions," he added.

Referring to public debate as conducted through the mass media, Papandreou stressed that there was a distortion of everything being said and done and noted that the government's work was the "only answer to the irrationality of public debate".

Referring to the latest cut in Greece's credit rating by Standard & Poors and other credit rating agencies, Papandreou said these had swung from one extreme, that of blind confidence in toxic bonds, to the opposite extreme of blind pessimism, fear and panic. In the same way that their predictions about Greece had been proved wrong so far, so would they be proved wrong now, he said. Source : ANA-MPA