“We are delivering on our promises,” State Minister Giorgos Gerapetritis said on Wednesday in an interview with Open TV, while stressing that the government, despite the fact that general elections are approaching, “will not give anything that may endanger the fiscal balance of the country.”
While acknowledging that there was a “political addiction” in Greece “to consider it self-evident, as we get closer to elections, for the state coffers to be emptied for pre-election handouts,” Gerapetritis gave assurances that this would not be done by the present government.
“In the draft budget submitted on Monday, all the announcements of the prime minister from Thessaloniki have been incorporated. They are announcements that mainly concern the vulnerable, the middle and lower classes […] but also special categories, such as pensioners who will see real increases. Our big risk is to find ourselves in a state of fiscal derailment,” he warned.
In addition, he stated “we have managed to be able to support the citizens where it is needed, at the source of the problem, without leading to a fiscal derailment.”
SOURCE; ANA-MPA
