The government of Kyriakos Mitsotakis was accused of “double deception” of pensioners Alexis Tsipras at a meeting with the presidents of federations and associations of pensioners. In particular, according to party sources, the President of SYRIZA PS referred to the 13th pension, saying that “when we introduced the 13th pension to Parliament, Mr. Mitsotakis committed and voted for it, and said he would keep it , and as soon as he was elected, he forgot that he even existed. And then he took the billion that we set aside for the 13th pension and used it to close holes from the privatization of additional insurance, which is the main opposition that we have both ideologically and practically. Mr. Tsipras stressed that SYRIZA wants the public insurance system, not the privatization of the ancillary insurance component, noting that “this privatization will cost the Greek population more than $70 billion over the next fifty years.”

He called the release of the retrospectives “the second big deception of the Mitsotakis government towards pensioners”. He said that this “happened in the post-election period, mainly after 2020, when the Council of Europe decision came out to retroactively apply the illegal cuts made by the government of Samara, a decision that affected everyone.” He added that “they only gave for the reduction of basic pensions and did not take into account the reductions associated with additional and gifts, and they were also considered unconstitutional by the Council of Europe.” “And not only that,” he added, “but they called on pensioners not to file appeals and that this will be the case with everyone and that what they are entitled to will be returned, but there is no decision on the return of pensioners yet. retrospectives”. He emphasized that “this is a big question of morality and justice”, since “a country cannot ignore the decisions of justice when it is not convenient for it and when it is convenient to talk about respect for the decisions of justice.” .

Speaking about the obligations of SYRIZA PS to pensioners, Mr. Tsipras emphasized that in TIF he committed himself to two things: “The return of the 13th pension with the abolition of TEKA, which concerns the privatization of additional insurance, and we will restore this 1 billion pensioners to get a significant increase by the end of the year. And retrospectively, 2.5 billion euros will be allocated in three equal installments of about 800 million, because this is a big financial burden.” He noted that “to assign pensions to pensioners retrospectively is the moral duty of the state. Otherwise, we are not a state of law if we do not comply with the decision of justice.”

The President of SYRIZA stressed that the issue of pensioners should not be viewed as a matter of the current situation, but as a matter of restoring justice to the past decade. “Renegade workers paid the price for the country’s recovery from the economic crisis, the terrible cuts they suffered, especially in the first phase of memorable years. And yet they were the ones who supported the income of each family, and not just their own, because in Greece the institution of the family is different from the rest of Europe,” he noted. In the same context, he said that “with their pension they support their grandchildren, his child who is unemployed, or a businessman who is doing poorly.” “Indeed,” he said, “there has been a horizontal cut in pensions, and we believe that after the end of the memorial adventure, these great wounds should slowly heal.” He said, that “despite the terrible financial hardships and hardships associated with the commitments that we found from the previous ones and were forced to fulfill, which were unfair, at the end of the year, what surpluses we had, we gave away to pensioners and Mr. Mitsotakis said us that these are crumbs, and we have set the 13th full pension for low pensioners, who make up more than half of pensioners, and increased it to 50% for the highest pensions.”

In addition, speaking about the increase in pensions from January 1, 2023, announced by Mr. Mitsotakis at TIF, Mr. Tsipras emphasized that “this is an increase that was legislated in 2017 and was provided for in 2023.” But, he continued, “there are serious problems from there.” In particular, he spoke about the personal difference, stating that “if this trick were not there, then the old pensions would go to the bottom” and that “but now there is a problem, because in order to cover the personal difference at the expense of the current allowances when indexing pensions to pensioners there will be no promotion with a personality difference, and this is an issue that we need to look at, how we can solve it with our own proposals.”

At the same time, he described the issue of unpaid pensions as “huge”, which, according to him, was “inflated”. In particular, he mentioned that the SYRIZA government made great efforts and reduced them by 70%, and “a new government came and promised that pensions would not be delayed for a single day, and in the end they again reached 300 thousand. And now we have about 124,000 auxiliary and 80,000 main pending and 55,000 one-time outstanding. He noted that “here, too, the government is following the path of privatization, rather than strengthening the public sector with a worthy executive potential.” He added that “At that time, we found a solution with the OAED Young Scientists Program and 2,000 people were working on it. And that’s a critical issue of fairness.”

The President of SYRIZA PS told the presidents of the federations and associations of pensioners that “we are always open to talking with you, firstly, because we respect in your person the pensioners of the whole country who have suffered great sacrifices, and secondly, because we consider it necessary strengthen the institution you represent, which is why we introduced this optional fee.” He noted that “the government’s decision to cancel it in practice is a vengeful decision and a decision that signals that in the end they don’t want there to be claims and a different point of view, but silence about everything.” “In the end, they will negotiate with Mr. Autias for pensioners, not for you,” he said, stressing that “pensioners should have a voice, demand, disagree, as they did with us, but this is democracy.” and “every government must respect the social group that demands and fights, and in any case discuss with them.”