The country has need of unity, and not divisive quandaries, main opposition New Democracy (ND) leader Antonis Samaras said on Sunday, addressing the first in a series of pre-Congress conferences leading up to the party's 8th regular Congress scheduled for June 25-27 in Athens.

Addressing the inaugural pre-Congress conference, held at the Peace and Friendship Stadium in Faliron, Samaras attacked the government on its intention to set up a fact-finding commission on the economy, stressing that the country needs unity, and not divisive dilemmas, and accused the government of teetering.

"Instead of governing, it is setting up fact-finding commissions," he said, and further accused the government of "four months of inaction" and of "being at the center of the public debate for the measures it is not taking, whereas ND is at the center for the 23 measures it (recently) proposed for growth".

Samaras warned, regarding the proposed fact-finding commission on the economy, that "at this hour it is a mistake for us to poke out our eyes with our own hands" and put the country at the mercy of the international media.

He added, however, that if the government goes ahead with such a commission, ND "will participate".

The government, Samaras said, things that it will "entrap us", but "it is mistaken, we fear nothing, we have nothing to hide, we are covering up for no one", adding that everything must come to light, "we do not bow to extortion and opportunistic quandaries".

Samaras further described as a "pseudo-dilemma" the quandary of "whether we should take the measures ourselves or wait for the EU to impose them".

"The issue at hand is not the measures, but what measures one takes," the ND leader said, and opined that Brussels is increasing the austerity of the measures.

He warned at the same time that the government will have ND "on the opposite side if they lead us to (borrowing from) the International Monetary Fund (IMF), which is anti-European". Any measures taken should limit squanderous state spending and not the needs of the many, Samaras added, stressing that the weaker strata but also the middle class must be protected so that the market will not dry up.

On his party's opposition tactics, Samaras said that "we are exercising progressive opposition, we are doing what is good for the country, but we are not co-governing...we support the country, and not the government...responsible opposition politics is one thing and co-responsibility in the mistake is something else".

"We will not accept unfair and ineffective measures," the main opposition leader stressed.

Samaras also accused the ruling PASOK party of championing "the bankrupt economic and social model that was prevalent after 1980 and is based on redistribution of the loans and clientele relations".

"Our country needs a change of example. The new ND being created on the road to the 8th regular Congress of principles and positions will lead Greece to a new era, which is the demand of the times and embraces the entire society," he continued.

Samaras outlined his vision for a "social liberalism founded on the values of Freedom, Justice, Equality before the Law, and Competitiveness".

"If I were to encapsulate my vision in a single phrase or slogan, it would be 'competitiveness everywhere, in the economy, in culture, in foreign policy, in defence'," he added.