Androulakis: Let’s move forward with policies that will strengthen social cohesion

“We should proceed with specific policies that will strengthen social cohesion and reduce the inelastic costs of Greek households, states the Nikos Androulakispresident of PASOK – Movement for Change in his article in the special “World Review 2022” edition of Euro2day / New York Times.

“We need to proceed with the change of our production model, so that it can cope with the needs of the modern era and effectively face the ever-increasing challenges. “Unfortunately, the government let the great opportunity of the Recovery Fund go untapped, deciding the distribution of the funds not for the benefit of society but for the few close ones,” he states.

As a country, adds the president of PASOK, we cannot afford to stand still. It is necessary to proceed with the necessary reforms and changes.

The entire article by Nikos Androulakis

“Since 2010, our country has been experiencing a continuous crisis. Inequalities increased while almost half a million young people were forced to go abroad in search of a better life. To reverse this negative spiral, which is mortgaging the country’s future, we need a new growth model, which will create many and good jobs, and lay the foundations for a crisis-resistant economy and society.

For this transformation to be successful, a different institutional framework is also required, where the state will not be treated as loot.

The role of the Parliament as a control mechanism of the government has declined significantly. Executive power is exercised in an opaque and centralized model without accountability favoring corruption. The surveillance case highlighted the outdated model of governance. The state of close relatives and friends. The sense of omnipotence and impunity often permeates the exercise of power horizontally and is reflected by the operation of controlling institutions and the creation of islands of lawlessness within the state. At the same time, the independent authorities, which were a major institutional innovation, introduced by PASOK, face many challenges when they try to carry out their mission with meager means. Finally, Justice and the mass media are two more critical areas for the smooth functioning of democracy, but it is commonplace that, unfortunately, major weaknesses and distortions are observed.

Modern social democracy can offer concrete and tangible political options that respond to society’s anxieties and problems.

First of all, with bold measures to defend the open and democratic society against threats from opaque private power centers that seek to dictate political processes. We also need to expand tools such as “Transparency”, starting with Parliament and political party spending, while ASEP needs to take a central role in fully modernizing the public sector recruitment system, with merit-based procedures becoming the absolute norm. .

At the same time, we must proceed to change our production model, so that it can cope with the needs of the modern era and effectively face the ever-increasing challenges. Unfortunately, the government let the very big opportunity of the Recovery Fund go untapped, deciding the distribution of the funds not for the benefit of society but for the few close ones.

But as a country we cannot afford to stand still. It is necessary to proceed with the necessary reforms and changes.

First we need to take advantage of the green transition and ensure that it is done in a socially just way and that the resulting benefits are spread throughout society. For this reason, we have proposed an integrated network of policies for the just transition, which will guarantee the country’s energy security and fight energy poverty. With an extensive program to upgrade the buildings, especially for the most vulnerable households and the grant for the installation of solar water heaters, to significantly reduce their energy costs and to be permanently protected. By promoting small and medium-sized RES installation programs to enable the installation of photovoltaics on roofs and the creation of energy communities for farmers, ranchers and processors, so that high costs are reduced and energy production is not limited to just a few large companies, but more and more to be able to produce the energy they consume. In fact, according to the European experience, this policy leads societies to create a new culture of savings, which is also a key goal of the green transition.

In addition, we should proceed with specific policies that will strengthen social cohesion and reduce the inelastic costs of Greek households. One of them is the cost of housing as one in three Greeks spends over 40% of their income on housing costs, by far the highest in the European Union where the average is 7.8%. The rates are even worse for those who rent the house they live in, where 59.6% spend more than half their income. For this reason, first of all the parties, we presented a comprehensive program to create a public reserve of housing, which will be available for rent and not for sale with social criteria.

In this environment of changes and challenges, we must guarantee that no one will be left behind because in the vision of European social democracy, social cohesion, prosperity and democracy are not incompatible concepts, but inextricably linked”.

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