An attack on Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis on the economic policy is launched on the occasion of the issue of accuracy, the SYRIZA-PS accusing him of using “every possible and improbable excuse trying, in vain, to reverse the obvious: accuracy is galloping, his government is dwindling, the citizens are daily seeing their income diminish.”

Responding to the prime minister’s interview with Alpha, he claims that “behind the idyllic image of the labor market he presented, behind his empty statements in favor of progressive taxation, behind the attempt to slander the proposals of SYRIZA, nothing but the well-known… Mitsotakis. Who put a tombstone on the reinstatement of the 13th and 14th wages, who refused again to reduce taxation on essential goods, who refuses to take substantive measures to tackle tax evasion, who refuses to proceed with drastic changes in the tax scales and touch the surplus profits of big businesses”.

He accuses the prime minister of “insisting on lying about the absolutely costed SYRIZA-PS program and exorcising the reduction of VAT in basic goods, with the well-known argument that “the economy can’t stand it”.

He then notes:

-Cyprus zeroed out VAT in 2023 on basic items and gave 3 extensions until June 2024. Food inflation decreased from 10.4% in June 2023 to 1.7% in March 2024.

-Spain keeps VAT at zero until June 2024 and food inflation from 16.5% in March 2023 fell to 4.4% in March 2024

-Portugal kept VAT on basic food items at zero until the end of 2023. Food inflation is -0.1% in March 2024 from 22% in January 2023, down 22 points!

-France maintains a reduced VAT of 5.5% on food and Ireland and Italy at 4%.

SYRIZA PS has announced since the beginning of the year and filed a proposal for a Law before Easter to deal with punctuality:

-which zeroes out VAT on food and basic items

– permanently reduces VAT to 21% (from 24%), to 12% (from 14%) and to 5% (from 6%) from 1/1/2025

-temporarily reduces the excise duty on fuel to the lowest level in the EU

-Establishes gross profit margin ceilings on food, manufactured goods and agricultural commodities with severe penalties

-Establishes a 5% profit ceiling for electricity providers

– Activates an effective mechanism to control the prices of agricultural products.

In response to “where the money will be found”, he notes: “The measures are absolutely cost-effective and are supported by tax revenue on the surplus profits of banks, electricity providers and refineries”.

He then responds to the prime minister on labor policy: “Despite Mitsotakis’ triumphalisms about the labor market situation, the reality is that Greece has hit the brakes on employment. In 2023 Greece was 26th in the EU in employment rate of the population (67.4 The annual increase of the employed is only 42,000. It is 3rd in the EU in terms of unemployment, with an annual decrease of only 66,000 unemployment has never fallen below 10% as Mr. Mitsotakis said, while a necessary condition for the reset of the three years is for it to fall below 10%.

Today, with the latest data from the OAED of March 2024, the registered unemployed are 976,000, of which 500,000 are long-term unemployed. The difference between the unemployed and ELSTAT by 500 thousand people is impressive.”

It also refers to the increase in incomes:

● Greece is 26th in the EU in per capita income in terms of purchasing power and 2nd in the EU in unfair indirect taxes to GDP with a 25-year record

● Real wages are decreasing in 2025, with a tendency to zero in 2026. According to the Commission’s report, the official real wage reduction of 6.7% in 2022 was preceded when Mitsotakis turned his attention to other priorities that do not concern the citizen.

● The real wage in Greece increased in real terms by only 1.1% in 2023, and is expected to increase by just 1.3% in 2024. As for 2025, it tends to zero, at a rate of 0.3%.

● In 2023, Greece is first in overdue household debts to banks, utilities (electricity, water) and rents. 47.3% of all households are unable to pay on time (2.03 million households), against a European average of 9.2%. Since 2019, debts have increased by +10.4%, i.e. an additional 450.520 thousand households

● The country has a 4.24 billion biennial surplus in the biennium 2022-2023 from overtaxation in exact conditions.

● Greece is 2nd in the EU in food inflation in March with inflation more than three times the EU average.

● According to the IMF report, Greece in 2024 is 111th out of 118 countries in current account deficit (it has a bigger deficit than war-torn Ukraine!)

And the most characteristic: According to Eurostat’s living conditions survey, 68% of Greeks answer that they are getting by very hard/difficult, compared to 19% of the EU average. To these people, he has something tangible to say and suggest Mr. Mitsotakis?”.