THE Nikos Androulakisin his premiere as the leader of the Official Opposition in the Budget debate, in the Parliament, directly challenged the government’s narrative that the economy is going and will do well and at the same time outlined the alternative proposal of PASOK – Movement for Change for the governance of the country.

From the beginning of his speech, his president PASOK-Movement of Change sharply criticized while characterizing the budget as “lost opportunities, half-truths and lack of perspective for the majority of the Greek people with anemic growth”, and as he said, “it relies on the Recovery Fund, which, however, has an expiry date. You have failed to make the economy more competitive, the society fairer and the institutions stronger, but above all Greek men and women more optimistic and with a better perspective for their lives”, noted the president of PASOK-KINAL. He added that the advantage of stability, invoked by the government, is a stagnation full of social injustices and he harshly criticized the Banks, saying that “PASOK destroyed your propaganda”.

“You chose to limit your government to an “island of settlement of interests and insecurity for the majority of society”, emphasized Nikos Androulakis.

Describing his own alternative proposal for the country, the leader of the Official Opposition emphasized that PASOK-Movement for Change has tabled many proposals which the government rejected as “your party ego and excessive arrogance outweigh any willingness to show practical consent to the proposals of the opposition”. He continued by saying that the government is trying to convince the Greek people that there is no other way, that anything else proposed cannot be implemented, so that they should accept their fate because they cannot do anything to change it.

“In response to this miserable narrative of yours, we send the message to the Greek people: do not settle for stagnation and injustice in your life.

There is another way and together we can do it. We cannot accept that Greece will turn into a country of opportunity for rich people from abroad to buy real estate and not a country with opportunities for its children. We are fighting to change this course through investment in public health, public education, the welfare state and social security.

We cannot accept the generalized discrediting of institutions, justice and politics. The manipulations in the tragedy of Tempe and also in the parastatal affair of wiretapping affected the separation of powers. I expect the entire political system to respond to the change in the way of selecting the leadership of justice during the upcoming constitutional review. The Greek people have nothing else to expect from a government in retreat. The need for a change in political direction, with a progressive development and social justice plan, is now imperative.

So, I call on every Greek woman and every Greek man who asks for respect from the state, security, hope and perspective to join forces so that the country can turn the page. For a new creative course with solid prosperity, for the benefit of the Greek people and the younger generations”, emphasized Nikos Androulakis.

He fully explained his party’s proposals – to impose an extraordinary levy of 5% on profits in the biennium 2023-2024, which was rejected by the government, the new amendment to stop abusive and unreasonable charges which was also rejected.

“You distorted the truth, that we want to administratively determine bank interest rates. I really wonder why you tell such blatant lies? How anxious are you to defend the banks? We obviously did not propose the administrative determination of interest rates, but we finally want the decision 168 of 2024 of the Supreme Court to be respected.

The question is simple: When banks have the right to increase the loan rate as the European Central Bank rate rises, shouldn’t they also have the obligation to reduce it when it falls?”, underlined the leader of the Official Opposition. filing in the minutes of the Parliament the decision of the Supreme Court, “in response to the propaganda of the Ministry of Truth of the New Democracy”, as he pointed out.

In addition, addressing the prime minister, he stated that “you are leaking that you will make certain announcements, even these are a parliamentary victory for PASOK because they come after our continued pressure. But you have a duty to answer, Mr. Mitsotakis, how much did your two years of inaction against abusive practices cost the Greek people?”

Sharp was the criticism of Mr. Androulakis for the government’s responsibilities regarding the accuracy where he repeated the proposal to set up a Single Consumer Authority while he spoke of an attempt to distort and discredit the proposals of PASOK-KINAL by mentioning again the successful reduction of prices due to the VAT reduction in Spain.

“Mr. Mitsotakis, our difference is that for us it is important to protect the income of the most vulnerable and the middle classes, and not the super profits of the oligopolies! You are the protagonist of populism, and indeed of the free form,” he emphasized, addressing the prime minister directly.

And he continued: “In 2010 and also in 2011 – mind you – with the country on the edge of the cliff and when we were looking for the euro with the dropper, the responsible politician Mr. Mitsotakis

proposed a horizontal reduction in VAT. How many billions did it cost? 2, 3, 4? But since many years have passed, let’s go to the most recent: give us the costing of the amendment

that you submitted in May 2019 for a VAT reduction.

And you characterize as populism our own proposal to reduce the VAT on specific basic goods, for a specific period of time, with a comparatively small fiscal footprint”.

Similar tones of criticism were used by Mr. Androulakis on the government policy in Health and Education, the unfair taxation of employees and low incomes, the housing policy, the problems of farmers and primary production.

“Two words describe the results of your policy in the last 6 years: Lost opportunity. A lost opportunity that traps the country in long-term stagnation. The Greek economy, that is, after the end of the Recovery Fund, will enter a path of complete stagnation”, observed the president of PASOK-KINAL, submitting relevant tables in the minutes.

“The dividend from this growth is not distributed fairly. Your plan leads to a great redistribution of wealth in favor of the few and powerful. The culmination of the injustice is that you have reduced inflation to a basic tool for implementing fiscal policy,” he added.

Nikos Androulakis made a special reference to Demographics where he stated that it is the biggest national challenge and that party entrenchments do not fit. “That’s why we ask for consensus by proposing to open a national dialogue, in which we invite the government, the other parties and the self-administration to participate in order to draw up a stable long-term strategy”, he pointed out.

He spoke about multilingualism in national matters, “where a breakthrough strategy is required, we heard 4 different voices within the New Republic, you expelled one and there were 3. One voice, Mr. Gerapetritis, the foreign minister who sees an open window of opportunity to appeal to The Hague. The second voice is yours, who just yesterday said that you see this window but it is closed. And the third is of Mr. Dendia, the Minister of National Defense who sees no window, but a wide open door of concessions. It is now obvious that you have confused your internal party problems with national interests!”, characteristically said Mr. Androulakis.