After the summer break and TIF, the prime minister is back with the weekly review of government work on Facebook.

In today’s message, he makes extensive reference to what he announced at the TIF and what was presented during the week by the relevant ministers, highlighting in particular the measures to support incomes, as well as the housing and demographic measures: “We are not another government . We are another government. And proof of this is the 45-point plan that I presented at this year’s TIF.

It was not a “basket” of mindless benefits and empty promises, but targeted measures that on the one hand transform the economy, increasing its productivity and extroversion, and on the other support many social groups and first of all the younger generation. A plan characterized by realism, vision and responsibility, within the budgetary framework set by the EU, so that we never get into adventures again” writes the Prime Minister.

The Prime Minister’s message:

“Good morning! The enforced summer break and TIF kept us away from our regular Sunday meeting for a while, but starting today I’m back to our weekly report. I have a lot to tell you that will change the daily lives of citizens for the better and bring us as a country closer to European levels.

Last weekend at the TIF I referred to this double leap that we need to make in order to reduce the still large distance in terms of incomes from the rest of Europe and at the same time to eliminate the inequalities that keep the regions of the country developmentally stuck compared to Attica.

We are not where we were in 2019. Greece is changing year by year and in several fields the results of this transformation are already visible. However, we know that we have to move faster, fairer and more efficiently in order to make up for the lost time of the more than ten-year crisis.

We are not just another government. We are another government. And proof of this is the 45-point plan that I presented at this year’s TIF. It was not a “basket” of mindless benefits and empty promises, but targeted measures that on the one hand transform the economy, increasing its productivity and extroversion, and on the other support many social groups and first of all the younger generation. A plan characterized by realism, vision and responsibility, within the financial framework set by the EU, so that we never get into adventures again.

The economic policy of 2025 includes 12 salary increases (for public and private sector employees, for pensioners and vulnerable groups) and 12 tax reductions, with the most important being the reduction of one more unit of social security contributions. The increase in disposable income is also a response to the punctuality problem that is testing households.

That is why, in addition to income “banks” and salary and pension increases, we also support household income in other ways, such as the free digital tutoring for 120,000 students of the Third High School, the free afternoon surgeries for 37,500 of our fellow citizens , our policy on cheap mortgages for 20,000 couples or individual households and our interest-free energy saving and upgrading scheme for at least 20,000 old flats.

We will continue to fight the battle of supporting incomes against an inflation that in recent months has stabilized at lower levels than at the beginning of the year and close to the 2% target we have set.

Especially for medical and nursing staff of the National Health Systemin addition to the wage increases of the previous year and the 20% increase in the compensation of their on-call doctors, from 2025 there will be an independent taxation of on-call doctors of the National Health Service at a rate of 22%, thus satisfying a fixed request of theirs.

The average monthly net benefit is estimated at 150 euros and in many cases exceeds 200 euros. Furthermore, we give an increased incentive of 200 to 600 euros per month, depending on the specialty and region, to attract and retain doctors in problematic and barren areas. I want to announce something else, very important, which aims to strengthen Primary Health Care: from 1/1/2025, doctors who choose Pathology or General Medicine as a specialty will be provided with a one-time financial incentive of 30,000 euros, in addition to their salary as specialists. Thus we look forward to increasing the available number of Pathologists and General Practitioners in the NHS who correspond to only 6% of all specialties, when in the rest of Europe it is 20% of the medical population.

I pass to our family support policy. It is perhaps the most important government concern that becomes more pressing under the demographic spectrum. That is why we are establishing a special demographic observatory, which will allow us to monitor developments and take action.

In addition to this, as I announced at the TIF, we are proceeding with the lifelong recognition of the status of three children in almost 200,000 thousand families which will be certified through the gov.gr platform. Thus, n increases quota in public employment for three-childso as to rise to the same percentage as those with many children, from 12% to 16% of the total number of announced positions.

While the provisions that exist for them already apply many children in terms of their participation in favorable housing programs. Other measures: The three basic OPECA benefits are being reformed and increased (Minimum Guaranteed Income, Housing and Child Benefit), the “Neighborhood Babysitters” program, amounting to 100 million euros from the NSRF, will now apply nationwide, while we give the opportunity to Municipalities of the country to add 20,000 new places in municipal and private nurseries.

We have already increased by 18 million euros this year’s budget for nurseries and Centers for Creative Employment of People with Disabilities, which means an additional 6,300 vouchers (5,000 for infants and toddlers and 1,300 for people with disabilities over 22 years old, in total we are talking about 173,364 places) . In addition, private health insurance for minor children up to 18 years of age and voluntary benefits and vouchers from businesses to new parents will henceforth be tax-free. An important measure is also the free preventive fertility check for women aged 30-35.

From the support of the family, I will come to Mortgagea problem that plagues many large cities in Europe. After painstaking negotiations with the European Commission, the second “My Home” Program, worth 2 billion euros, with resources from the Recovery Fund, is starting immediately, which will enable young people and couples up to 50 years of age to acquire a house at half the interest rate from the commercial. The installment of the mortgage loan will be lower than what they would pay if they rented a house of similar specifications. We are also doing something else: we have secured 400 million from the Recovery Fund for loans of up to 20,000 euros, with zero interest, aimed solely at the energy upgrade of almost 20,000 old houses, a program that runs alongside “Renovate-Rent” and the other actions of the Ministry of Energy. At the same time, responding to constant requests of the owners’ associations, a three-year tax exemption is instituted for the owner who rents the apartment which is currently closed on a long-term lease. There are over 700,000 closed apartments, of which approximately 250-300,000 are in Attica alone.

As for the short term rental linked to the problem of expensive housing, we establish new incentives and disincentives to balance one’s right to profit with another’s right to housing. But we are not abandoning our plan for social housing either, making use of idle state properties, such as the 18-acre CHROPEI site, where hundreds of apartments can be built. Similar properties, of smaller size but important and in good areas, exist throughout Attica and the rest of Greece. There will also be an amendment to the legislation to make the framework of the so-called social compensation more attractive. I will write you about it when we have news.

It also started this school yearwith 11 important changes in Primary and Secondary Educationwhich I believe will significantly contribute to improving the everyday life of students, teachers and parents. I will focus on strengthening the permanent teaching staff with 10,000 new permanent teacher appointments – a record number – that we have made this year. Appointments in special education quadruple compared to 2023 and there are eight times the number of Special Educational and Special Auxiliary Staff positions in all specialties. From this week, a great innovation is being piloted, the digital tutorial for the nationwide exam subjects, which will be completely free for all students with live evening lectures for all the exam material. I am glad that the initiative “The mobile in the bag” was well received, not only by the parents, but also by the students. Another very important state intervention is the “Marietta Giannakou” program of 250 million euros, for the renovation of hundreds of schools throughout Greece. The funds will come from the Public Investment Program, but here is a field of national offer for wealthy individuals.

As for her labor marketthe pilot application of the digital job card is now being extended to the tourism and catering sectors. The measure has already been successfully applied to approximately 750,000 employees employed in banks, large supermarkets, insurance companies, security companies, DEKO, with the total number of businesses estimated at 73,000. With an extension to tourism and food, it is estimated that they will reach a total of about 1,500,000. The aim of the digital work card is to fully safeguard the rights of employees and to protect them from abusive policies of undeclared overtime and illegal changes and excesses of working time. Its effectiveness is confirmed by significant increases in declared overtime in the integrated sectors, as in supermarkets for example, where from the start of the implementation of the measure to the end of 2023, a cumulative increase of +61.2% was observed.

Last topic for today, Mr sportas the new league started, with new rules for safety inside and outside the stadiums, for the first time also regarding the operation of the Fan Clubs. We had promised that there would be a fan club per PAE and we are making it happen. Seven Fan Clubs, which correspond to an equal number of Super League 1 clubs – AEK, ARIS, Olympiacos, OFI, Panathinaikos, Panserraikos, PAOK, as well as the amateur team of HERACLES – were granted by the Ministry of Sports the required certificate for the timely submission of the data them, in order to obtain, after the prescribed on-site inspections, their annual operating license.

From this year, the process is carried out digitally through the Digital Register of Members of Fan Clubs on gov.gr, which facilitates the valid and quick search for the necessary information for reasons of public safety. States, citizens and sports players need to be on the same page to protect sports from the violence of the few.

So that’s it for today. As you can see, we have come back strong, and will continue to do so. See you next Sunday!”.