Tsipras: ‘Bees’ ate Mitsotaki’s commitment for the national minority pension

The President of SYRIZA PS, Alexis Tsipras, underlined his support for the just request for the restoration of the national pension for the Greek national minority, in a meeting he had with the presidency of the Democratic Union of National Greek Minority-Omonia (DEEEM-Omonia), accompanied by the Head of Labor and Social Affairs, Mariliza Xenogiannakopoulou, and the Head of the Greek Diaspora, Theodora Tzakri

Mr. Tsipras spoke about “injustices that the minority has suffered during the period of the memorandum years”, when in 2012 “the right of our elderly expatriates to have a national pension was cut”.

“I want to assure you that now that the country, thanks to our efforts, is not under memorandum surveillance, we support the redress of injustices,” Tsipras added, referring to two amendments tabled by SYRIZA-PS which were not accepted by the Government, “in order to strengthen your request”, as he said “apart from the fact that we consider it fair, we consider that it is our obligation, especially in a difficult time, to actively support the Greek community”.

In this context, he stigmatized the fact that “the issue of the national pension, which is also a matter of equality has not been launched despite the promises of the Prime Minister himself”, despite the fact that Mr. Mitsotakis’s commitment was not in an institutional framework, commenting sharply that “this issue was probably eaten by bees”.

At the same time, Mr. Tsipras reminded that these injustices “we tried to redress immediately after the exit from the memoranda, some of them in the memoranda, with a hard battle I remember then with the troika in 2016. In 2019 after the exit from the memoranda “We had voted to restore the uninsured old age allowance. But the part of the national pension remained, and we were committed to it,” he said, adding that “unfortunately I see that the amendment we voted on in 2019 was never implemented, 2.5 years now”.

In closing, the President of SYRIZA PS reminded that during the SYRIZA-PS Government the Greek-Albanian relations were promoted and both the right of self-determination and the property were secured as preconditions for Albania’s accession to the EU. “Greece must be supported, as they are a very important part of Hellenism and we want to do everything so that the people can stay there in their homes.”

He described as critical this living part of Hellenism “to be tolerable in living conditions, to be able to survive”, because as he said “if it does not survive it will be uprooted”.

For their part, the members of DEEM OMONIA thanked Alexis Tsipras for the practical support to the problems they face both during the period of SYRIZA government and today.

They underlined that the situation they face as a national Greek minority in Albania is difficult and unfortunately it is even more difficult mainly due to the circumstances, such as the pandemic but also due to the attitude of the Albanian government.

As they noted “we are determined to continue the effort on all fronts because it is a bet, not only for us who are our special homeland, it is a bet for all Hellenism to stay in our ancestral homes”.

“We recognize the support and assistance we had during your government, as in the issue of property which concerns all areas where Hellenism lives and especially in the wider coastal area of ​​Chimarra, where the problem is still the same if not more intense. “pointed out Vassilis Kagios, president of DEEEM Omonia. This is because, as he explained, the entire property regime is being challenged with illegal arbitrary decisions to the detriment of the legal owners, who are mostly of Greek origin.

On the issue of self-determination, which is just as important as he stressed, Albania, although it has ratified the Council of Europe Convention on the Rights of Minorities, 4 years later only minimal regulations have been implemented and of course the most painless ones.