N. Iliopoulos: Gerapetritis-Fourthiotis talks reflect deep institutional decline

SYRIZA-Progressive Alliance spokesman Nassos Iliopoulos spoke about the “aroma of deep institutional decline” when asked about the talks between the Minister of State George Gerapetritis and Menios Fourthiotis.

“We are talking about a defendant, a man about whom the current parliamentary representative of ND and former Minister of Labor Giannis Vroutsis complained that he invaded the Ministry with thumbs up to threaten him”, noted Nasos Iliopoulos, while reminding: “we are talking about a man , under the current government, was accompanied by 14 police officers “. “So, it seems that Mr. Gerapetritis, the number 2 of the government, was talking to this man”, he stated characteristically (Alpha 96.5 Thessaloniki).

“The government must give a clear answer as to what its relationship is with this person and why he is allegedly blackmailing members of the government,” he said. “This institutional decline is not worth it in the country and the citizens. Along with the inadequacy in the pandemic and the accuracy, the society pays dearly to the Mitsotakis government in matters of Democracy and the demand for political change is real,” Nassos Iliopoulos underlined.

As for the accuracy, he repeated: “it is now obvious that Kyriakos Mitsotakis underestimated the problem”. “In September at the TIF he announced a budget of only 150 million euros, saying that the problem will bother us until Christmas”, said Nassos Iliopoulos and added: “since then we have been saying that the cost to the Greek economy is accurate – especially in energy “It will be over 1 billion and it will last more than nine months.” “Unfortunately we were right,” he said.

“What must be done first of all is to increase the minimum wage to 800 euros. Greece is the only country in the eurozone that has a lower minimum than in 2010, while in ’20 and ’21 almost all countries in “In the eurozone, they proceeded to increase the basic salary”, stressed Nassos Iliopoulos. “It is not possible for the government to announce an increase in May. Now it is up to the citizens not to be able to pay their bills,” he noted. “Of course, this increase will not only support workers,” he added, “but also the self-employed and small and medium-sized enterprises, because almost all of the minimum wage is directed to consumption.”

“The second crucial issue is the need to intervene in PPC’s pricing policy,” he said, “something other countries like Spain have done.” “With the subsidy alone, we end up – with the money of the citizens – to subsidize the super profits of individuals in the energy market”, explained Nassos Iliopoulos. “Third, there is a need to reduce excise duties on oil, gas and fuel in general,” he said. “And we must definitely proceed with a scheme of regulation and write-off of the private debt that was born during the pandemic”, said the spokesperson of SYRIZA-Progressive Alliance.

Referring to the ongoing bad weather, he noted: “the people who are in the most difficult position are the homeless, the vulnerable groups, those who can not heat their homes.” “Energy poverty has returned very violently,” he added. “An important problem that has been recorded so far is the situation in schools. In too many schools, e-learning is not working properly,” said Nassos Iliopoulos, adding that the Ministry of Education asked the schools themselves over the weekend to solve problems that government has not solved for two years “.

Finally, when asked to comment on the developments around the case of the rape of 24-year-old Georgia in Thessaloniki and other cases of sexual violence that have come to light in recent days, Nassos Iliopoulos stressed: “one can not say that now” they were born ” the incidents, but that they are now beginning to gain more visibility, that the silence is now breaking. ” “Those who are involved”, she said. Adding that the institutional deficits that arise in these cases must be addressed, he noted characteristically: to testify for the first time in the presence of a psychologist, something that did not happen “.” The question is the constant struggle to secure institutional “As it was established in Greece that sex without consent is rape”, said Nassos Iliopoulos, concluding that “we must constantly fight for an open society, which will produce a framework of security for all and all, which will not tolerate any gender practice violence “.