P. Skourletis: The government should hit the core of accuracy – Measures are not enough – retaliation

The government must make strong, horizontal interventions that will hit the core of its accuracy and curb inflation, thus giving more power to small incomes, as it is not enough to give something a posteriori and targeted, which in fact will have the character of “retribution”, pointed out the Parliamentary Representative of SYRIZA – Progressive Alliance and Member of Parliament, Panos Skourletis.

Referring (“Radio 97.6” stigma) to Greek-Turkish relations, Panos Skourletis stressed that no over-equipment is needed in the logic of escalation, but a dialogue that will have a strategic goal of referring the issues of the continental shelf and the EEZ to the International Court of Justice. He also stressed the need for peace initiatives in Ukraine, noting that the answer could not be more war economy and more armaments.

In this context, he said about:

Accuracy and the measures that the government must take

“Strong, horizontal interventions are needed, at the core of accuracy. This is what the government is not doing. At the same time, with rising inflation, the state has increased revenues based on VAT, since VAT is calculated at higher prices. So it has budgetary margins. (…) And it seems that the European Union, under the pressure of the difficult economic reality, will reactivate for the next year, the so-called escape clause, ie there will be no restrictions as to “Fiscal targets. That is, what happened in previous years on the occasion of the pandemic.”

“There are reports that warn us. The government has not done anything for six, seven months, to prevent this wave of accuracy, to mitigate it, so that energy accuracy does not fuel inflation. We are talking about scary numbers in everything. As for the level of inflation that we will have in March and beyond, maybe even more, now he says that he will take some targeted measures for the weakest. I think that is not enough, because when you have an inflation of 9%, as they say some first estimates for March, you understand that it is “retaliatory” to give something afterwards to some, who are really squeezed from the moment they see, due to inflation, the purchasing power of their incomes decreases. “For the people of 300, 600, 700 and 800 euros, this money is not even enough to pay the electricity bills.”

“Horizontal intervention, which is the reduction of VAT on consumer goods, the reduction of the excise duty on fuel, will curb inflationary trends, thus giving more power to these small incomes.”

Greek-Turkish relations

“Any dialogue that opens with Turkey is positive, as long as it is part of a strategy where our country knows what it wants. The end of this dialogue must be that the disagreement over the continental shelf and the EEZ, at some point, should to reach The Hague “.

“We do not need agreements that may involve our country in military missions outside the country. We do not need over-equipment, which does not strengthen the defense, but puts us in a different logic of escalation.”

“Things are getting complicated since we and Turkey are members of NATO. So, all those who are currently sending weapons in support of Ukraine, I do not know if they would send them in a similar case, in a conflict between us and Turkey. “Since we are both members of the same alliance. Let us not make easy connections.”

The war in Ukraine

“Optimism can only be based on specific peace initiatives. At the moment we see that measures are being announced which I do not know to what extent they are moving in that direction. This is the main thing, not to hear that the balances in the wider region are changing and that it is very easy for each country to adopt a new armaments program. “A few weeks ago from Germany. If the answer is more war economy and more equipment, then it has done a lot of damage.”

“The war in Ukraine, the utterly condemnable Russian invasion, did not come as a thunderbolt in the air, there have been a number of events over the decades that we should not naively ignore. “This is neither a set-off nor an alibi for the invasion, but we can understand the logic of NATO and American expansion.”

“We can not but see the responsibilities of Europe, which has been unable to build its own, autonomous, defense mechanism, which aims first and foremost at maintaining peace in the region. And this mechanism should be done in cooperation with Russia “.