ATHENS (Reuters) - Greece's co-ruling Socialists hit
out at British Prime Minister David Cameron on Wednesday, accusing him
of "insulting" Athens by saying Britain could restrict the entry of
Greeks and citizens of other struggling euro zone countries.
The PASOK party, led by fiery former finance minister
Evangelos Venizelos, said Cameron would do better to explain Britain's
interest rate-rigging scandal than rattle markets with talk of
restricting immigration.
The party, a member of Greece's new three-party
conservative-led government, called on Cameron to either deny or
"rephrase" his reported comments.
"Is the UK, which is not a member of the euro zone, so
interested in the unity and stability of the euro
zone that it is
threatening policing measures which violate all principles, basic
freedoms and rules of the European Union?" the party said in a
statement.
Responding to speculation in Britain about possible
waves of migrants from debt-laden euro zone countries such as Greece and
Spain, Cameron told a parliamentary committee on Tuesday:
"The legal position is that if there are extraordinary
stresses and strains it is possible to take action to restrict migratory
flows, but obviously we hope that doesn't happen."
Watching the euro zone crisis from the sidelines,
Cameron is under pressure from eurosceptics in his Conservative Party to
give Britons a vote on whether they wish to remain inside the EU or to
downgrade their relationship with Brussels.
But his comment touched a nerve in Greece, where many
Greeks already feel humiliated by the debt crisis that has left the
country dependent on bailouts from the EU and the International Monetary
Fund to avoid bankruptcy.
"It would be preferable if the British prime minister,
rather than making remarks that are insulting or create a false sense of
nervousness in the markets, elaborated on the information regarding the
manipulation of the Libor interest rate and took better care of the
fiscal figures of his country," PASOK said.
Britain is in the grips of a growing scandal over the
manipulation of the London Interbank Offered Rate, or Libor, the rate
that big banks say they borrow from each other and which underpins
trillions of dollars in global contracts.
By Renee Maltezou
(Additional reporting by Karolina Tagaris; Writing by Matt Robinson; Editing by Andrew Roche)
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