The government will not leave consumers at the mercy of excessive increases in wholesale electricity prices, government spokesperson Pavlos Marinakis reiterated on Sunday, in an interview published by the newspaper “Eleftheros Typos tis Kyriakis”. Marinakis also repeated the government’s goals for increasing the minimum and average wage, and its continued commitment to reducing taxes.
“There is no way we can let increases that do not reflect the real cost of electricity reach consumers. The prime minister has already raised the issue with the president of the European Commission, while the joint intervention of Greece, Bulgaria and Romania followed, at the initiative of our country, to address the dysfunctions in the wholesale market. We want to be clear: such phenomena will not be accepted. We need a tool that does not allow excessive revenues at the expense of consumers and businesses. The state is not going to allow some people to profiteer at the expense of the citizens. It is not profit that is criminalised, it is profiteering. And because we have used such tools in the past, you can be sure that we will do so again, if the need arises,” Marinakis said.
He noted that a convergence of income levels with the European average “is our main priority” and that the government is focusing all its efforts on the benchmark it has set for 2027.
“The country’s progress since 2019, despite the unprecedented and unpredictable crises, is such that it creates the solid foundation that allows us to be optimistic. However, we are clear that we will not achieve this goal by applying past ‘recipes for bankruptcy’, which mortgage future generations,” he said, pointing out that the government’s policies focusing on development have created half a million jobs, lowered unemployment to 9.4% and started reversing the “brain drain” of previous years.
Marinakis confirmed plans for more tax cuts, noting that the next budget includes 12 new tax cuts in 2025, as well as a further reduction of social security contributions, while referring to upcoming legislation aiming to improve day-to-day life through programmes to improve educational and transport infrastructure, among others.
He denied that the government had reasons to fear pressure from and voter leakage to the right, highlighting its tough stance on many law-and-order issues, and the “strict but fair changes to the Penal Code and the Code of Criminal Procedure, to close loopholes for every category of offender,” while also refuting any adoption, on the government’s part, of the “woke agenda”.
Asked if opposition PASOK-Movement for Change can take on the mantle of main opposition, Marinakis criticised the party’s stance on what he called major issues and accused it of “having no counterproposal” or of copying SYRIZA’s approach and presenting unworkable proposals.
Regarding the challenges ahead as the next general elections approach, Marinakis replied: “We have more than 2.5 years ahead of us to make citizens increasingly become aware, through their lives and in their salaries, of the fact that Greece is starting to become a normal country. It takes a lot of work, measurable results and policies that specifically target the support of the middle classes, so that those who some dismissively termed the ‘solid citizens’ can take back what they were deprived of.”
SOURCE; ANA-MPA
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