1999 Third RAINBOW Conference

POLITICAL DECISIONS
AT THE 3rd RAINBOW CONFERENCE

(December 12, 1999)

On December 12, 1999 the proceedings of the 3rd organizational Rainbow Conference, which started on November, was completed. The last two and a half years of Rainbow activities were reviewed. It was concluded that the Greek state policies towards the minority questions in general and particularly towards the Macedonian national minority are still negative. Rainbow considers that the recognition and the respect of the distinct Macedonian national identity through the recognition of the collective rights of the national minorities in Greece (Macedonian and Turkish) is the only measure to evaluate the policies of the Greek state. Unfortunately such recognition to this day has not been granted and therefore the policies must be judged as negative.

It was also concluded that in recent years on the Greek political stage two opposite poles appeared. That became more evident after the reactions (about and for) towards the war in former Yugoslavia. The creation of an alliance of leftist political forces, lead mainly by the Greek Communist Party, together with the ultra-nationalists from all major parties and church circles led by Archbishop Hristodoulos, led to the forming of a kind of Orthodox fundamentalism. This atypical political alliance expresses a strong anti-European, ultra--nationalistic and anti-democratic political ideology very dangerous for democracy and the pro-European perspective of the Greek state. At the other pole there are the pro-European, anti-nationalist and democratic political forces who express themselves through individuals, intellectuals or small political movements. Unfortunately together they still don't represent a powerful and compact political force. As matters are today Rainbow with all its forces stands behind the pro-European, democratic and anti-nationalist pole.

In the Conference the following decisions, among others, were reached:

Continuation of the Rainbow policies according to the principles expressed in the political manifesto.
Undertaking of initiatives for expanding the ties and cooperation with the democratic movements in Greece concordant with the principles of the party.
Expanding of cooperation with the representatives of the Turkish national minority in West Thrace.
Undertaking an initiative for the creation of an independent media organization which will enable the party to free itself from the policies of a continuing media embargo practiced by almost all the mass media in Greece.
Use of all possibilities offered through the cooperation with the EFA/GREENS, the coalition of the minorities parties in the European Parliament, especially after Rainbow becomes a full member of this alliance on April 20, 2000.

At the end, according to the organizational principles of the Party, a 17 member Central Council was elected together with a 5 member Political Secretariat. The elected members are as follows, in alphabetical order:

Central Council

Anastasiadis Stavros
Vasileiou Nikolaos
Vasileiadis Petros
Voskopoulos Pavlos
Vragkos Hristos
Dafopoulos Ilias
Dimtsis Petros
Dintsis Athanasios
Kligkatsis Pantelis
Konstantinou Georgios
Manakoulis Hristos
Mpekiari Marijana
Mpoules Anastasios
Mpoukouvalas Petros
Ntenas Dimitrios
Papadimitriou Dimitrios
Parisis Athanasios

Political Secretariat

Vasiliadis Petros
Voskopoulos Pavlos
Kligkatsis Pantelis
Parisis Athanasios*
Mpoules Anastasios

View pictures from the conference: [pic 1] | [pic 2] | [pic 3] | [pic 4]

*As of January 26, 2002, Mr. Athanasios Parisis has taken up his new position as President of the Greek EBLUL. As of this date Mr. Parisis is no longer a member of the Political Secretariat of RAINBOW.

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