Thessalonica, 10/09/2005
Mr. Prefect, Mr. Mayor, Ladies and Gentlemen, dear Colleagues, let me start by thanking you all for this great honor you are making to the Hellenic Police Force, by being here today at the opening ceremony of our Stand at the Thessalonica Exhibition. This is indeed something that the Hellenic Police Force really needs. Besides, all the Forces dedicated to serving the citizen always need this kind of presence close to them. Furthermore, anybody who is making such an effort, night and day, really needs the presence of the citizens besides him/her, since it will be the citizen who will benefit from all the better results from all these efforts.
It is a fact that the Greek Police Agents do not only need our support, but also our love and our help. As far as I am concerned, I really want you to know that I consider myself very lucky because the Prime Minister assigned to me the political responsibility of leading this Ministry and meeting these wonderful people who have more than once put aside their families and their personal relationships. They are doing this, because most of the times it is required of them to place themselves at a place beyond the world of feelings experienced by anybody when doing a profession.
This is why I believe that our state still owes these people a great deal and there are certainly long standing accounts that need to be settled. I want you to know that to the extent that I can possibly reach, I will deploy all my forces to defend the Hellenic Police Force staff, because I consider them both very good staff and very good people. You must stand by. After a long period of time during which the people wanted to stand behind or away from the Police Agent, today has now come, when people want to establish eye contact with the Police Agents, they want the Police Agents to stand by them. I consider this as a major achievement. And I believe that such an achievement should be based on two very important principles. The principle of efficiency, because this is what the citizens want to see, and the principle of democracy, of the respect for human rights, because this is also what the citizens want to see.
These two principles find a meeting point in the Hellenic Police Force and are implemented in a successful way which produces positive results. It is not just me who is talking about positive results; these are words coming out of the mouth of those people who have the responsibility to monitor, to observe, to assess and to evaluate the capabilities of all the Police Forces in the world.
Let me also tell you how proud I feel when I here all those flattering words at the various Councils of Ministers of the European Union regarding the potential of the Hellenic Police Force. This is something that makes me proud and that surely makes each and every one of us proud. I would, therefore, like to ask you to stand by this fight that these people are engaged in, these people whom we all need. Regardless of our own field of competence, today I want all of us to stand by the Hellenic Police Force, because they are worth it, because they are wonderful people. Thank you very much for being here today. Let me know declare the opening of the Police Force stand.
