Al. Tsipras in BSE: As wrong as ‘State-Tyrant’ is, so much is ‘State-Companion’

By Niki Zorba

Alexis Tsipras emphasized the “existential dangers” (geopolitical and possible social crisis) that the country is facing during his speech at the Annual Ordinary General Assembly of BSE Members, harshly criticizing the government and the Prime Minister personally, in … Mitsotakis effect.

He had been “nailed” to members of SEV because they attributed after the 2019 elections the reduction of lending rates to the government change that followed, to the “Mitsotakis effect”.

“I wonder, if this claim is true, what effect is it that feeds all the negative firsts in inflation and the energy crisis today?”
Whose effect feeds the rally in the spreads that yesterday increased by 300 basis points? ”

According to the president of SYRIZA, the country needs a new beginning with a progressive government that implements a “radical plan to curb the precision that consumes income and increases production costs”, stating that “As wrong as the” state as a tyrant “, another even more so is the “state as a comparsos” for the economy and society “.

The State is required to set the framework and rules to facilitate healthy entrepreneurship, he concluded in terms of the state-entrepreneurship relationship.

In this context he said about:

Government

The influence of Mr. Mitsotakis on the great challenges of the time, complicates the problems, multiplies the weight and the consequences of existing crises, creates new ones.

Will you tell me the Mitsotakis government is to blame for the energy crisis?
No, but the Mitsotakis government is the one that, with its strategic choices, inflated it.
Just like in the pandemic, another global problem ended up having much greater consequences in Greece than in all European countries.
Is this a coincidence?

We are champions in the price of electricity and fuel.
First in the eurozone with a difference in energy inflation.
Prices for electricity tariffs increased by 39% in the euro area, 61% in Greece.
Inflation in our country breaks one negative record after another, at 11.3% in May, significantly higher than in the rest of Europe.

But when obsession becomes a strategy, then at critical junctions, weapons dwindle.
When the state becomes a spectator of production, then it also becomes a spectator of the arbitrariness of the market. Without strong control and regulatory mechanisms in the market. Eventually turning their backs on notoriety, harming the public interest and ultimately eliminating the healthy forces of production and the market that want to play fair and compete based on the product or services they produce.

Nationally

If the impact of Mitsotaki’s policy on the economy gives us these negative firsts, in foreign policy it leads us to an unprecedented climate of insecurity and uncertainty.
Greece is turning from part of the solution into part of the crisis.
From a pillar of stability and security, it is transformed into an advanced outpost of the West.
And in fact an unguarded outpost, because if we ever need to defend our sovereignty, let us not have delusions.
We will be alone.

Our active involvement, with an arms shipment – and even heavy weapons – in Ukraine, ranks us among the countries directly involved in the war.
At the same time, our neighbors, although allies in the same alliance, are not obliged to impose sanctions on Russia either.
Greece is paying a heavy economic price for sanctions that seem to hit the one who imposes them harder than the one who is subjecting them, sending heavy weapons to Ukraine against Russia, while at the same time receiving no security guarantees against the Turkish provocation.

That is why Greece must become part of the solution again.
To acquire again a new national strategy. By restoring the national line for a Greece that is a pillar of stability and a guarantor of peace and security.
By disengaging from the arms shipment to Ukraine.
With an active policy to find a diplomatic solution in Ukraine and an end to any sanctions that primarily affect the European economy.
By restoring the channels of communication with Turkey for the resolution of our only dispute, in The Hague.

Economy – Foreign policy

Today I want to ring the alarm bell.
Because the potential dangers of superficial management in foreign policy and of obsessive management in the economy outweigh any of our disagreements.
And they can turn into existential dangers for the country.

Even if the confrontation with our neighbors remains at the rhetorical level and does not escalate, the consequences will be extremely negative for the economy as well.

On economic issues, I would like to point out the danger of a social crisis, which is visible again for the first time in almost a decade.

Accuracy is a reality that not only makes the poor poorer, but the entire active productive potential of the country.
The self-employed, the self-employed, the small and medium enterprises, that is, the whole of the middle class.

So, along with households and SMEs, the consequences are affecting both large companies and industry – as the Association of Industrial Energy Consumers has rightly pointed out for months with data it presents.

Design to be exact

We need an immediate and radical plan to effectively halt the wave of precision that erodes income and increases the productive cost of doing business: Regulating the oligopolistic sectors of the economy by strengthening regulators and strengthening participation in public interest management) with a clear political mandate for price restraint, introduction of strict controls and rules in the market, introduction of a profit ceiling in the wholesale of energy producers,
Suspension – if necessary – of the energy market with an emphasis on the futures market and bilateral contracts in the electricity market for medium and large enterprises (especially the most energy-intensive) in order to reduce energy costs and price stability.

Energy strategy

We must proceed with the change of energy strategy.

By postponing the de-ligation with a serious and reliable lignite detoxification plan
By promoting decentralization in energy production to SMEs, farmers, households and Energy Communities, drastically reducing costs.
By promoting the prosumer model (both – producer and energy consumer) which is now a European priority and offers solutions to dramatically reduce energy costs in a short time to all productive entities and households.
This will require financial facilities, institutional measures to strengthen energy communities and facilitate all kinds of collaborations and measures to ensure the necessary space in the electricity network.

Small and medium enterprises

The support of the media that the government has abandoned is also crucial.
With tax and financial incentives the development of the cooperative economy and the cooperation of SMEs with each other by sector and between sectors so that we have the benefits of economies of scale and reduction of production costs.

It is also crucial and urgent to combat large-scale tax evasion / avoidance and to regulate property taxation as part of a more comprehensive policy of reducing inequalities.

Reduce bureaucracy in running businesses by simplifying procedures.

And especially in the industrial sector, it is necessary to return to sectoral policies in the context of the green and digital transition, with the aim of gradually increasing industrial production and strengthening domestic production with products of high added value.

State

As wrong as the “state as a tyrant” is, so much the “state as a accomplice” is for the economy and society. Redesigning production, ensuring social cohesion, shaping prospects for prosperity for the majority of society and business, can only go through a plan.
A plan that on the part of the state, there are rights and obligations.

The right to enhance productive activities that enhance both the competitiveness of the Greek economy, the living standards of its citizens and its environmental balance.
Obligation to provide resources, a secure investment and regulatory framework and to remove obstacles to the proper and fair functioning of the market.

At the same time, it must shape the social environment for the development of the economy.
Welfare state, good schools, good universities, good hospitals, public spaces, cultural structures, sports venues.

So the state, as a company invests in its infrastructure, must do the same, in exchange for something far greater than profit: social peace and cohesion.

Budgetary

The fiscal challenge that has exhausted us in recent years is in recession today thanks to the debt settlement we have achieved but it is not completely absent.
And the debt sustainability that has been secured through many efforts and sacrifices, has been undermined in the last three years by both the pandemic and the management of resources.

The guidelines of the European Commission, while providing for the continuation of the suspension of the escape clause from the Stability Pact for 2023, constitute a more restrictive framework for Greece and for countries with high debt.
They suggest for our country surpluses higher than those that had been agreed and seemed to everyone very large, when the SYRIZA government withdrew from the memoranda (2.2%).

Fiscal sovereignty must therefore be re-established.
But this must be pursued primarily by accelerating growth and a fair and balanced distribution of its benefits, not by maximizing primary surpluses.
Greece must claim more time and resources to support social cohesion. By extending the escape clause, by extending and redesigning the Recovery and Durability Fund.