N. Iliopoulos: The government’s measures are an insult to society

“Yesterday we saw a vicious prank, an insult to a society that can not make ends meet,” said SYRIZA-Progressive Alliance spokesman Nassos Iliopoulos, speaking last night, Thursday, March 17, in his main news bulletin. Star of Central Greece “, referring to the speech of the Prime Minister, Kyriakos Mitsotakis, to be precise.

Reiterating that the measures announced by the Prime Minister are measures-mockery, Mr. Iliopoulos stressed: “Thirteen euros per month for gasoline is a really funny amount”. “The first measure that is really needed today is the increase of the minimum wage to 800 euros”, he pointed out and added: “Greece is the only country in the Eurozone, where the minimum wage is lower than in 2010”. “Such an increase,” he said, “would not only support the workers but also the small and medium-sized, the self-employed, because almost all of this amount is directed to consumption.”

“The ND government, in practice, has applied a ceiling on wages and has left profits uncontrollable,” said the SYRIZA spokesman, adding: “Wages must rise and prices must fall in order for society to remain upright.” “According to INE-GSEE, only for January – based on inflation data – an employee who is on the basic salary has lost 14% of his purchasing power.” “According to the Institute of Small Enterprises of GSEVEE, for 50% of Greek society the income ends on the 19th of the month. So the increase of the basic salary at the moment is very critical”, he added.

“The toolbox of the Commission enables us to put a ceiling on energy prices and at the same time to tax in an extraordinary way the super profits to the energy companies. Mr. Mitsotakis himself spoke about super profits. It is estimated that the companies will have about 1 billion “Profits. These should be taxed and with this money to support interventions for society, such as the reduction of the Excise Tax on fuel or the reduction of VAT on basic food,” said Mr. Iliopoulos.

“On the contrary, at the moment the government is using taxpayers’ money to subsidize the notoriety,” he explained, adding: “A number of European countries have already started reducing the VAT.”

Responding to the government’s allegations about specific resilience of the Greek economy, he commented: “This is a strange thing for ND, it seems that there is no problem of resilience of the economy when the PPC CEO receives 360,000 euros a year or when the blue-collar executives of HEDNO give in themselves a bonus of 60,000, but there is a problem of endurance when the citizens receive 13 euros per month “.

“The reduction of the Excise Tax on fuel, to the thresholds allowed by the EU, for a year, would cost 1.5 billion. This is entirely possible at the moment”, the SYRIZA spokesman noted that “the increase of “basic salary will not have budgetary costs, on the contrary we will have more revenue for public funds”. He reiterated that “if there is a ceiling on energy prices, instead of subsidizing the notoriety, we will save money to effectively support society.” “After all, everything is a matter of priorities,” he added, explaining: and direct assignments “. “It is a choice of the Mitsotakis government to let the society freeze in front of the energy tariffs”, Mr. Iliopoulos pointed out.

“ND politics is a pandemic within the pandemic”, he underlined, noting that “elections are needed, political change is necessary”. “There must be a quick plan to settle the pandemic debt for small and medium-sized enterprises, a different policy in favor of wages and collective bargaining, in favor of the welfare state and public goods,” the SYRIZA-Progressive Alliance spokesman concluded.

SOURCE: ΑΠΕ-ΜΠΕ