N. Iliopoulos: ‘The government chooses to plunder the social majority’

Nassos Iliopoulos accused the government of “passive attitude of the Greek side towards the Turkish market at the NATO summit”, in the main news bulletin of Kontra Channel last night, while in relation to its accuracy he attributed that “he chooses to plunder the citizens” .

He said in particular that in the last five months the revenues from taxes in the state budget exceed 3 billion euros and that “this is because inflation is galloping, while the excise tax and VAT have not been reduced”. The spokesperson of SYRIZA PS pointed out that “indirect taxes are the most socially unjust because they hit more those who consume their entire income and not those who have cayenne”. “The fact that the government chooses not to reduce VAT and excise duty, at a time when it has created a space of 3.5 billion, shows a government that chooses to plunder the citizens,” he stressed. Regarding the adjustment clause, he noted that “the president of RAE himself said that in no case do we return to pre-clause charges, while companies from the energy sector said that we risk seeing even bigger increases”. “The government is making fun of the citizens, it is not abolishing, as it says, but it is incorporating the clause in the floating tariffs, while there is no simple solution: disconnection from the gas and a ceiling on the wholesale price, which would very quickly bring reductions to 50% “, he added.

On foreign policy issues, Mr. Iliopoulos said that “we have every reason to express our concern about the outcome of the NATO Summit”, noting that during it there was a statement from the US that they support the upgrade of Turkish F-16 and that the strengthening of Turkish military equipment contributes to NATO security. “Furthermore, Turkey’s agreement with Sweden and Finland opens up new valuable arms markets for the neighboring country, while deeply involving Turkey in European defense and security policy,” he stressed. He added that “perhaps the most worrying thing is that after all this, government circles have expressed satisfaction.” Mr. Iliopoulos stressed that “when you express satisfaction, at a time when it seems that Erdogan is winning a series of issues that he had put on the table, you continue to tell yourself and society, the convenient lie that Turkey is isolated.” He claimed that “Turkey has set up a bargain around the accession of Sweden and Finland to NATO and it seems that the Greek side in this process did not go with any line of defense, with no claim for a framework agreement”.

The SYRIZA representative stated that “it seems that Greek foreign policy has no strategy” and that the Greek side should have gone to the summit with its own aggressive agenda to set limits to the Turkish challenges and that “of course this must always be done in accordance with international law “. He criticized the prime minister that “precisely because he has a problem in his foreign policy, all he does is buy weapons, giving money without any plan at all.” Mr. Iliopoulos stressed that the Prespa Agreement was “a huge defeat for Erdogan’s policy in the Balkans, a policy revisionist who wanted to strengthen intolerant elements”, while he argued that “if the nomenclature had not been resolved, then in this or in “A previous NATO summit, the Mitsotakis government would have signed the entry of the neighboring country with the name Macedonia plain.”

Opposing Adonis Georgiadis on the issue under the name “Turkaegean”, he said that “it is a real shame for the political leadership to make an EIA, trying to put the responsibility on an official” and that “the government obviously has a responsibility to know what was happening”.

SOURCE: AMPE