“Mitsotakis cheated pensioners twice, cuts total 7.5 billion – Today’s increases were voted by SYRIZA but with 10% inflation they don’t address the problems”
The President of SYRIZA – PS Alexis Tsipras had a meeting with pensioners in a cafe in Egaleo today. Mr. Tsipras delivered a speech and then had the opportunity to discuss with them, to listen to their problems, proposals and requests.
Mr. Tsipras highlighted the double deception of the pensioners by the Mitsotakis government which cut the 13th pension, while he had promised to maintain it, and did not give the retroactive gifts and supplementary pensions based on the decision of the CoE. According to the President of SYRIZA – PS, cumulatively these cuts already reach 6.5 billion and by May they will reach 7.5 billion. On the other hand, Mr. Tsipras referred to the commitments of SYRIZA – PS to pensioners for the restoration of the 13th pension, the return of retroactives, he announced measures to restore the injustice with the personal dispute, while he committed himself to measures to deal with the obscene profit that is gnawing away at the income of pensioners.
The following are key points of Al’s interventions. Tsipras:
I am here today to discuss the problems that mainly concern people who are out of work, pensioners, who of course at this time I have the feeling that they are under particular pressure, as well as the vast majority of households in the last year, especially with the terrifying increases mainly in energy but not only, in mass consumption products, in the supermarket which has become a nightmare.
The papers tell us, that is, the data that we accumulate – but one way is to see them on paper and another is to live them in everyday life – that pensioners who receive the basic pension and also those who have something more than the basic, the national pension , have terrible losses of income, that they need two pensions a year just to pay the electricity and that for incomes – say the researches – up to 800 euros per month there is a loss of 40% of purchasing power, which means that what you bought last year such season with your income, now – this year you get 40% less, almost half.
And I want here today to chat with you, to hear your anxiety, to hear your thinking and that’s why I wanted to come and find the people who are regulars here. I don’t want it to be a gathering where we will only hear opinions of friends of SYRIZA, I want us to speak the language of truth, to listen to criticism, but we also want to restore some truths. Because for four years now the pensioners in our country have been deceived on a daily basis by Mr. Mitsotakis with what he said then, what he ordered before the elections and what he did after the elections, three and a half years, but also by the majority of the mass media.
Because I want to remind you exactly what SYRIZA received in 2015. Empty coffers, 1 billion deficit in EFKA and pensions cut 12 times in a row from 2010 to 2014. They made 12 pension cuts, 50% of pensions on average were cut in in four years. If you ask some of those who appear every weekend on the channels and address the pensioners, the history of the country started from 2015 onwards, there was no more before, from 2015 onwards everything started. So 50% cuts, 12 consecutive tax breaks and cuts to pensions actually imposed by the Troika. I’m not saying that they wanted it, but this is the truth and the commitments they had made since 2014 with the Hardouvelis mail, the infamous one, to cut the EKAS, which indeed we did not manage to counter, as we managed a series of other cuts to which they were committed.
Do you remember that big debate when they came out in the Parliament without audacity and without shame and said that I am selling out Macedonia to save the pensions? And I saved the pensions. Really, since I saved the pensions, how are we the ones who cut them and broke up the pensioners? The truth is that we stood up for both the national interest and the pension when the Troika wanted to impose a further 30% cuts on the main and ancillaries.
But what happened as soon as we got out of the memos? First of all, during all four years of our own government, despite the very great pressure we had then from the Troika, every December we gave a social dividend, primarily to pensioners and people who are in great need. What did they call us then? That these are crumbs.
When we came out of the memoranda, we instituted the 13th pension up to pensions of 500 euros and a very significant supplement of 70%, 50% up to 30% for the largest pensions for all the rest. Before the election they told us that this 13th that they had then – that was the fiscal possibility – but it was for 800,000 people who were getting low pensions, a full pension and for everyone else a significant supplement, they said before the election that they would keep it. As much as you saw it in 2020, 2021, 2022, we also saw it. For three consecutive years cumulatively these pensions were not paid to pensioners every spring, every Easter, as we had set – this could change and become Christmas – but they were never paid. Total, more than 4 billion is now owed by the government to the pensioners, because it did not keep the promise to pay the 13th pension. And if we reach the end of the term, as Mr. Mitsotakis says, another one will be added, four consecutive pensions, four consecutive years, will not have been paid. So first deception.
Second deception, pensioners’ retrospectives. What are retrospectives? Retrospectives are those which the justice itself has decided were illegally cut from the pensioners in main pensions, gifts and ancillaries by the Samara government in the period 2012-2014. Appeals to justice led to a result, the decision of the Supreme Court. Either we are a favored state and respect the laws of the courts or we don’t have courts. The decisions of justice cannot be a la carte.
What did the Mitsotakis government do? He said initially that we cannot give them, go to court. As soon as a wave of appeals came out he came out and mocked the pensioners telling them, don’t be sad, we will eventually give them to everyone whether you appeal or not. The result is that we have approximately 300,000 appeals and in the end he turns around again and says, we will only give them to those who appealed. The remaining 2.5 million pensioners will get nothing. What are the retrospective endings that were not given? They are those related to gifts and ancillary services.
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