N. Iliopoulos: Every day with the Mitsotakis government is a lost day for the country

“Mr. Mitsotakis is the main factor of instability. Every day with a Mitsotakis government is a lost day for the country,” said the press representative of SYRIZA-Progressive Alliance, Nasos Iliopoulos, speaking to the radio station “Real FM 97.8”.

“Yesterday, 600,000 businesses were sent “tickets” amounting to 3 billion to pay the refundable advance, tickets which they must pay by the end of the month along with all other obligations. We are talking about businesses that have been brutally hit by the energy crisis, from the increase in operating costs”, he noted, repeating the position of SYRIZA-PS, “this money cannot be paid” and pointed out:

“The debt accumulated by businesses during the pandemic should be regulated and a part of it written off. From a company that is unable to pay and will close, the state will not collect anything. On the contrary, by regulating this debt, you keep businesses open, you keep jobs, and in the long run you help businesses pay off the rest of their debt.”

Referring to the issue of pensions, in the background of the recent decision of the Council of State, he spoke of the violent mockery of pensioners by the government. “The decision of the Supreme Court deemed unconstitutional the cuts made to the pensions by the ND government in the period up to 2014. The current government initially said that it would return a part of the retroactives, Mr. Petsas came out and urged the pensioners not to appeal and in the end, only those who have appealed will get money, with 1 million people left out,” explained Nasos Iliopoulos. “At the same time, the Mitsotakis government abolished that part of the 13th pension that SYRIZA brought back in 2019, we are talking about 1 billion euros per year,” he added.

Asked to comment on the negative forecasts for the energy crisis, he stressed: “Our concern is great, we cannot trust this government.” “At the end of last September, Mr. Skrekas, Minister of the Environment, said that the increases in electricity would be 2 to 3 euros and we see where they are today… At the moment energy inflation in Greece is “running” at 62%, while the European average is at 39%. This is Mitsotakis’ responsibility,” Nassos Iliopoulos pointed out and added: “Part of this responsibility is the violent and unplanned ligniteization that the government proceeded with, closing down lignite units that had an environmental permit, in order to imports natural gas”. “It was a political choice of the Mitsotakis government to increase imported natural gas in the energy mix, this is an economic crime against the country that we are paying very dearly for,” he explained.

“And this crisis should not and cannot be managed by the Mitsotakis government. That’s why political change is needed,” said Nassos Iliopoulos.

Asked about the post-election partnerships, he underlined: “We insist on speaking programmatically, it is a good opportunity today for the political forces to address the citizens not with the first question of “with whom” but “why”. “We need a progressive government that will regulate the pandemic debt, a government that will boldly invest in the welfare state, in education and health,” he noted. “Based on the latest data from the OECD, health poverty has returned in Greece: almost 1 in 4 has medical and pharmaceutical needs that it is unable to cover. The relevant rate in 2019 was 8%, now it is 25%. It is clear that support is needed of public health”, he emphasized.

“We also need a government that will restore rules to the labor market, today we have a Balkan-style labor market. Collective agreements cover less than 20% of workers, while the European norm is 60%,” pointed out Nassos Iliopoulos.

“At the moment the dialogue is with the society and it is the responsibility of each force to explain what are the policies it will implement”, he said and concluded: “our assessment is that there can be a progressive government in the country, from the first elections with simple proportional”.