“It is a mockery for the top ministers of the government to declare in a dance that due to the pre-election period they did not realize the very expensive prices of the ferry tickets, which the citizens have been paying since April”, commented the PASOK-Movement for Change in its announcement on the issue of the high prices of the ferry fares while noting that “the government’s much-publicised intervention towards the ferry operators will apparently be limited to some discount packages for specific categories of travelers and while the largest number of tickets for July and August have already been pre-sold”.

According to PASOK-KINAL, a clear regulatory policy is required since, as noted in the announcement, “no public service collects price data for coastal ferry tickets, with the result that prices are excessively high, especially on intra-island routes”.

He also points out that in 2001 during the PASOK government, the Maritime Inland Transport Regulatory Authority was established with the purpose of preventive market monitoring, which was abolished in 2004 during the New Democracy government

“PASOK, which as a government in 2011 reduced the prices of ferry tickets by abolishing contributions in favor of third parties, calls on the government to consider the temporary reduction of VAT on tickets to the low rate of 6% and to determine the coefficients of the elements of the cost of transport as well as the levels of connectivity and tolerable fare for the islands,” the announcement concludes.