“New Democracy’s economic policy is the joy of oligopolies in food, energy, private health and banking. The result is that inequalities continue to widen and Greek society lives with reduced expectations in a regime of economic insecurity”, says Nikos Androulakis in an interview with “Kathimerini”.

Regarding his party’s proposal regarding the reduction of VAT on basic goods, the president of PASOK-Movement for Change and leader of the Official Opposition notes that “our proposals are always realistic and respect the country’s fiscal limits” while pointing out that for the ND the most contradictory is “accusing us of populism, when the Prime Minister proposed the time when the country was on the verge of of bankruptcy – in 2010 – the horizontal reduction of the VAT and indeed free of charge. Something they repeated as a proposal in 2019 from the position of the official opposition”.

“Therefore, we do not feed rabbits with petrels as Mr. Mitsotakis to conquer the position of Prime Minister. And to finish with the fairy tale of tax reduction: The reduction of some rates implemented by the current government has been based on excess revenues from indirect taxes. In general, they got comfortable precisely at the expense of our most vulnerable fellow citizens”, argues Mr. Androulakis.

He emphasizes that “the hegemony that the New Republic enjoyed, but due to arrogance did not use constructively, has ended. PASOK, exercising a responsible, reliable and effective programmatic opposition, is constantly strengthening its position and is now entering the government’s orbit. I believe that the programmatic comparison of the proposals of New Democracy and PASOK will help citizens to understand the essential elements of the Policy and will reconstruct the current fragmented landscape”

“Greece needs immediate reforms aimed at the institutional, social and economic reconstruction of our country. Policies are needed that will protect citizens’ income, strengthen their labor rights and reduce inequalities. Top issues are public health and public education that are declining year by year, regional development, demographics, but also the reduction of production costs related to energy and water resources”, adds Nikos Androulakis.

He counters that PASOK-KINAL proposes the administrative determination of interest rates by calling on the government to answer a single question by applying the decision 168/2024 of the Supreme Court: “Banks are allowed to increase loan rates when Euribor or interest rates rise of the ECB and not attribute the reduction to the borrower’s interest rate when the Euribor or are the ECB’s interest rates correspondingly on the downward path?”.

For the Constitutional Review, the leader of the Official Opposition states how he will take the initiative to change the way of selecting the leadership of the Judiciary, proposing as a basis for dialogue, that the selection be made by the Parliament with an increased majority so that it ceases to have single-party characteristics.

Regarding the election of the President of the Republic, he states that he respects the institutional procedures and therefore will not participate in an unrestricted nomenclature. “We respect Mrs. Sakellaropoulou, but the discussion she opened is premature,” he emphasizes. “I have unlimited respect for Mr. Rammos, and Evangelos Venizelos who as president of PASOK fought under difficult conditions for the interest of the country. But as I told you, PASOK will be installed when the time comes. I repeat that this discussion is premature”, Mr. Androulakis.

For SYRIZA, he points out that his strategy against New Democracy was defeated twice and was judged as a failure by both the opposition and the government, and now the strategy of PASOK-KINAL will be judged as well. He reiterates that the strategy he follows is bilateral expansion and that those executives who wish to rejoin PASOK will do so “in the light of the foreground and not in the darkness of the background”.