By Despina Vlepakis

The filing of an amendment by K.O. of PASOK on the taxation of the excess profits of the banks, resulting from the interest rate difference and the charges, the President announced in the context of his participation in the OT Forum 2024 PASOK-Movement for Change, Nikos Androulakis.

“Tomorrow we will propose that there be an extraordinary taxation of the excess profits of the banks. It will not be an extreme measure, because it is not only fiscal in nature but also political. While the world pays for accuracy and small and medium-sized businesses are in a difficult situation, we have in Greece the biggest difference between the interest rate on deposits and the interest rate on loans, but also such large charges. Even at the moment when we gave billions to continuous recapitalizations. They have to show banks a more social person, which they have not done to date, while they have already managed a lot of money from the Recovery and Resilience Fund. So, our initiative has both a fiscal and a political nature” noted Mr. Androulakis in the wake of the Prime Minister’s refusal.

In addition, Mr. Androulakis also announced a new PASOK legislative initiative to address the distortion in the real estate market and the rapid increase in rents due to golden visas.

“We suggested that the golden visa should not be linked to the short-term rental. In other words, whoever buys a house with a golden visa, it should be intended either for owner-occupation or for long-term lease. Tomorrow I will bring back the proposal and in fact with an amendment that will say that when the holder of the golden visa comes to renew it after 5 years, he will not be able to have the property on a short-term lease” he emphasized.

Continuing his criticism of the government’s economic policy, Mr. Androulakis highlighted the oligopolistic practices at the expense of consumers identified by the Chamber of Commerce in four sectors.

“When the Bank of Greece says that part of the problems we face have to do with 4 big oligopolies: banking, food trading, private health and energy and we are doing the minimum to deal with them, then someone has to take initiatives. If the prime minister is cowardly, we will take them. And we will see in the Parliament, the MPs of New Democracy who a few weeks ago said that they have a more social face than the financial staff of New Democracy, I call on them tomorrow to show this social face by voting in favor of the fair amendments of PASOK in the tax bill” he pointed out.

Referring to the meeting with the Prime Minister the following day, Mr. Androulakis pointed out that he will ask him about the country’s major issues, such as the economy, accuracy, housing, the rule of law.

“I believe that we need to improve the functioning of the institutions in the country, we need to further invest in the separation of powers. Citizens’ trust in institutions and the political system is declining, so we have to make decisions. Therefore, I will put to the Prime Minister my proposal in the revision of the constitution to choose the leadership of the judiciary in a different way and not to be the choice of a party and a government, but it will have more security measures for the separation of powers” he noted and added as a second peak point the demographic: “the demographic is not only dealt with ad hoc initiatives but over a long period of time. This needs a broader consensus, that is to agree on a strategy, if the entire political system believes that this is the big national issue. In the coming years, whoever is in the position of prime minister should have a strategic compass so that we can quickly improve our demographics. Otherwise, demographics will be the bane of any economic development.”

“We want a development that is both sustainable and resilient and competitive and socially fair. The development we have today has none of these key features.” summarized Mr. Androulakis the different development model, which PASOK advocates.