“Apart from understanding the differences in electricity tariffs of different colours, the biggest problem is that profiteering will be present in all, whether the retroactive clause is charged upfront or ex post. And the problem is not the clause as such, but the possibility of profiteering in the wholesale market and the shallow energy market in Greece. Whatever tariff the consumers choose, the government has not done the slightest thing to reduce the profiteering in the wholesale electricity market”, noted the president of the SYRIZA-PS Committee of Congress, Sokratis Famellos, in an interview with the radio station “Sto Kokkino” in Thessaloniki and the journalist A. Lykesas.

S. Famellos pointed out that Greece is one of the few countries in Europe that has few bilateral contracts between producers and suppliers, but on the contrary, all consumers are directly exposed to the fluctuations of the wholesale market, without fixed-term contracts which were legislated under SYRIZA . In addition, the wholesale market is often distorted by price offers with a large profit margin from power producers, on the one hand because the market is oligopolistic, and on the other hand because it is not sufficiently controlled.

S. Famellos emphasized that the end result is that the consumers will always be losers: “Consumers will be the losers on odd-even occasions and the electricity oligopoly will be the winner on odd-even occasions, because there is no control by the State”, he pointed out, giving as an example the surplus profits that occurred in electricity retail when the government, in August 2022, proceeded to supposedly abolish the readjustment clause that is now being reinstated: “Within two months, there were over 1 billion euros of surplus profits in the supply, which subsidized by the government. Then, in November 2022, an extraordinary levy was legislated for these excess profits, but to date not a single euro has been returned”, he underlined, stressing that all of the above is a result of the non-existence of control by the State.

Presenting the proposal of SYRIZA-PS, S. Famellos emphasized that SYRIZA has asked for a maximum rate of profit to be set, with the result that whatever color of tariff the consumers choose, they will not pay the gross profit of the wholesale market. “Overall, our political proposal concerns a strong State that will not leave anyone unprotected, whether we are talking about the consumer, the vulnerable family, or the businessman. Because there are cartels in the market that deconstruct any process in the economy,” he noted.

Asked about the private HEIs, the president of the SYRIZA-PS Committee underlined that the government is trying and has publicly stated that in the case of the private HEIs it will violate the Constitution: “With this statement, of the direct violation of the Constitution, I think that we have now reached an extreme point of deconstruction of the rules of the Republic. For so many years no legislative regulation could be made for those who supported private HEIs, because the Constitution existed, now they say that they will proceed with it without changing the Constitution. Then why couldn’t they for so many years?”, he wondered.

Then, and referring to the “consistency” of Mr. Mitsotakis, he emphasized that for four and a half years, all the government has done was to support private schools and colleges, granting professional rights through the “back door” with nightly amendments by Ms. Kerameos: “The effort to privatize Higher Education was systematic. And it has already mortgaged to a large extent the quality of Higher Education, therefore the future of the country, the development, the health, the safety of the citizens. Why is there no control of studies, teachers and skills and knowledge in colleges until today”, he underlined.

He also emphasized that the goal of the ND government is to reduce the possibility of children’s access to knowledge, limiting the right of access to Higher Education and therefore the right of young people in tomorrow, in the future to advance.

“SYRIZA-PS will seek to stop the bill. Of course, we do not know the attitude that PASOK will take, because we are observing a strange, middle-Vezian attitude, which will be decisive for the character of the progressivity of its area. A battle should be fought over the substance of the rights. The credibility of the government and Mr. Mitsotakis in terms of Higher Education is non-existent: we honestly ask what four years have done for the quality of studies, for the quality of knowledge provided, exams, degrees and professional rights in colleges. If he wanted to do something about the quality of knowledge he would have done it. All it did was cut professors and resources from public universities. And now he wants to achieve the finishing blow with the private universities”, he noted.

“We need to talk about good public universities that will ensure that our children don’t have to study expensively in Cyprus and Bulgaria to get a degree. Our country should have universities that ensure both access to them and meritocracy in studies, with strict exams, with a high level of studies, with many teachers”.

Commenting on the targeting of the new mayor of Athens for the New Year’s event at the Syntagma, Sokratis Famellos said: “I sincerely want to wish Haris Doukas good success, because this message he delivered, a message of solidarity, cooperation, unity of society and a green transition , in an Athens that will create opportunities for everyone, was very optimistic, it transcends parties, it touches the entire progressive and democratic world. Obviously, this hurts the power system of Mr. Mitsotakis. For our part, we will not add tension to a term that begins now. That is, no matter how much some people target democratic ideals, we the people of democracy and progress must look at our work, reduce inequalities, reduce tensions and look at progress and peace”, he concluded.