Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras singled out Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras as a “factor of political instability” during his second term in Parliament, commenting on his statement that the elections will be held in the spring, while announcing that “the country can have a stable progressive government from the first ballot”.
The president of SYRIZA-PS refuted the criticism of Kyriakos Mitsotakis that he did not extensively refer to “social policy” issues and gave some additional answers. Specifically, he accused him of triple “deception” of pensioners, pre-election and post-election, from the abolition of the 13th pension, despite the promise to maintain it and the “cut” of retrospectives, to the recent announcement to abolish the solidarity levy and “unfreeze of pensions after 12 years.
“Now you are telling them that only those who appealed will be able to get retroactive benefits,” he stressed and called on the prime minister to say that retroactive benefits will now be given to pensioners.
In addition, he pointed out that as far as pension increases are concerned, these are “minimum increases of 4%” that only 1 million pensioners will see from December, “when energy costs have increased by 200%”.
In relation to the abolition of the solidarity levy, he noted that it does not concern pensioners who receive a pension of less than 1,000 euros, while he argued that by 1/1/23, which is expected to take effect, “elections will have intervened”.
On this occasion, Al. Tsipras pointed out that no one, “not even the MPs” of the coalition, believe the Prime Minister’s statements about elections at the end of the four-year term, since “every other day he announces candidates” and ministers “instead of working they run and hold pre-election rallies”.
“You yourself have led the country into a terrifying and unprecedented political instability and you come here and tell us one lie after another,” the leader of the official opposition pointed out and criticized the Prime Minister’s reference to a “big increase in the minimum wage”. characterizing the comparison with the previous government as “audacity”, “when the Samara government voted with a law and an article to raise the minimum wage to 586 euros and the sub-minimum to 510”, he commented and referred to the increases of 11% and 27% respectively that did the SYRIZA-PS government after leaving the memorandum.
“Then we didn’t have the 11% and 12% inflation that we have today, and we didn’t have that precision and that scary contraction of income – that was real growth,” he stressed, pointing out that current increases are no more than 9% with inflation in excess of 12% and with the purchasing power for minimum wage people falling by 18%.
“Is this the law that is the worker’s right? Or have you made the employer’s right a law?”, he asked.
Continuing, Al. Tsipras made a reference to the working conditions that refer to a “jungle”, laying the blame on the government which – as he said – by taking over abolished the reasoned dismissal, the eight-hour day, sectoral labor contracts, the protection of contract workers, the declaration of of electronic submission of overtime and overtime work, while essentially inactive the Labor Inspection Body, since the new independent Authority does not carry out inspections.
Responding to the Prime Minister’s reference to “children” working as freelancers in deliveries, he said “they are workers, they are not children”. “They are precariously workers with rights. The whole of Europe establishes a framework for salaried work, you make them freelancers”, he stressed and pledged that a future SYRIZA government will not only restore all the “trade union regulations that the ND dismantled”, but “will expand the collective negotiations, will support and strengthen wages, will establish a strict institutional framework for contracts, will proceed with the recognition of platform workers as employees and the re-establishment of SEPE in order to carry out real controls”.
Regarding the reduction of unemployment, Al. Tsipras recalled that during the days of the SYRIZA-PS government “unemployment was reduced by 10%” and the official opposition was talking about the “disaster” of the country, while now it has decreased by 5% and it is “celebrating”. “The unemployed today are 919,000 in the country, is it to celebrate?” he commented.
Besides, he accused the prime minister of not saying a word about the housing crisis. “The figures are scary, 40% of the population pays more than 50% of their income for expenses related to the roof and the percentage rises from energy”, he underlined, noting that “out of the 28 billion of the Recovery Fund and Resilience only 1.3 million euros” goes to tackling this problem, while respectively in Portugal 1.7 billion and in Spain 1 billion euros are planned.
“All you care about is that AirBnB is doing well, whole blocks are being taken over by foreign companies, and the students, the unemployed, the new kids, they can’t find a house, they live until they’re 35 with mom and dad,” he emphasized.
As far as accuracy is concerned, he launched an attack on the government and the prime minister for “political fraud with the readjustment clause”, which, as he argued, is not abolished but integrated into PPC’s accounts. “Since it was so easy to abolish it, why didn’t you abolish it in September? Why are you fooling around until the election,” he commented, adding that even the portion of the energy companies’ surplus profits, which the government was now forced to claim for the benefit of the public, would “give it to PPC through the back door”, as it will receive 300 million euros from the consumers, through YKO.
He also referred to the complaints of RAE and the Competition Commission, calling on the prime minister “to answer something about them”, as well as about whether he will reduce the VAT on fuel and the VAT on basic food items, underlining that “the profiteering is twofold” : “It’s the producers and the refineries and on the other hand it’s the state, which refuses to reduce the EFFK while fuel prices have gone to God and has 3.8 billion surplus in the first five months. Why are you doing this? For to give some pre-election benefits?”, he characteristically asked.
Referring, then, to other topical issues that were raised, Al. Tsipras stressed that “there is a very serious issue of democracy”, “not only because we are in 108th place in freedom of the press”, but “also in regards to the administration of justice, the rule of law, the issues of transparency and corruption”.
“The main problem yesterday in the European Parliament, Mr. Mitsotakis, was not the empty seats but the representative of Macron, who told you that we do not want to see another European leader who violates the rule of law and the freedom of the press,” noted president of SYRIZA, commenting on the prime minister’s response to the newspapers that circulate freely in newsstands: “Thank you very much, you are very big-hearted. And the publisher of the Republic should thank you because you did not manage to put him in jail.”
Regarding the issue of Novartis, the president of SYRIZA-PS called the prime minister “unrepentant”, countering that even “Mr. Georgiadis said an apology”, while blaming him for having already made a “verdict” for Mr. Papaggelopoulos and for prejudicial.
“The final will says there was no collusion. Since there is no collusion, who favored the company? Since the three witnesses were not hoodlums but reliable, according to the will, there is an issue for what you say. Will answers be given or all will remain unclear ?”, he said.
In closing, Al. Tsipras made a new reference to the issue of possible elections, characterizing the prime minister as “a factor of political instability” and accusing him of wanting to open “first with leaks and ambiguous statements the appeal to the ballot box in order to burn down the simple analog”, but now he sees “that things are more difficult.”
“The country can have a stable progressive government from the first ballot of simple proportionality. No matter how much you exorcise it, reality will deny you”, he said, and addressing the parties that define themselves as progressive forces, he announced that “we are not fighting a two-front fight, we are one-sided struggle against the ND, because he must leave before the damage becomes unbearable for the homeland”.
“Those who want and proclaim that they want not only a progressive but also a social democratic government, have nothing but to expressly exclude from now on any thought of cooperation with Mr. Mitsotakis’s ND. So that their words have some meaning and their proposals have some logic”. concluded.
Source: Capital
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