For the “hidden agenda in the economy and especially in healthcare.” SYRIZA-PS President Alexis Tsipras blamed ND during the opening speech at an extraordinary press conference on economic issues that he gave today.

“The time has come to reveal the true agenda of the SI. The time has come to reveal its hidden designs in the economy and especially in healthcare,” he said characteristically, presenting Pravda 5 + 1 for the SI program.

He argued that the ND’s argument that its own program was “assessed and approved by the European Commission” in the context of the Stability Program is “another shameless lie”.

According to him, the government’s fiscal policy plan for the next three years, which was presented to the Commission and “strongly proposes a framework in which the government’s economic policy will develop in the medium term”, “includes only one of its activities in the ND election program – the reform of the unified pay fund labor from 2024 at a price of 0.3%”.

This constitutes the first truth, according to Al. Tsipras, which he clarified by stressing that the medium-term outlook “does not include campaign promises to cut taxes and social security contributions” such as removing the business tax or increasing the tax-free “does not include social security policy announcements,” such as an 8% increase in the minimum guaranteed income, youth travel pass, or a 10% reduction in ENFIA for disaster-insured homes “does not include health announcements” such as an increase in nursing staff by 10,000 workers and strengthening of 300 centers health by five mental health professionals at each center, “does not include educational campaign announcements such as teacher salary increases and an increase of 50,000 kindergarten places.

“Most of these measures remain costless, and it is doubtful how the ND will fund them when the fiscal space it defines with its figures in the Stability Program, i.e. space above 2.0-2.2% of the primary surplus, which is compatible with the sustainability of the public debt – it is minimal and will reach only 0.3% of GDP in 2026,” said Al. Tsipras, commenting that “we no longer have doubts about why the ND abandoned our proposed joint estimate, and then the public debate” .

Turning to the second truth, he said, he noted that “according to the Stability Program, the cost of wages of public employees at constant prices, that is, in terms of the purchasing power of public employees, decreases between 2023 and 2026 by a total of 730 million euros because they do not provide compensation to public sector employees for income losses caused by inflation.” So, he stressed, “the real salaries of civil servants will not only not increase, but decrease,” as “the true ND program predicts.”

As a “third truth”, he stated that “according to the figures of the Stability Program, the main consumer spending of the public sector”, that is, “government spending covering public education, health care, civil defense, citizen security, between 2023 and 2026 . in nominal terms remain at the level of 11.6 billion euros”.

This means, he says, that “in real terms, that is, in constant prices, they decrease between 2023 and 2006 by 1.1 billion euros, or a total of 10% over four years”, which is equivalent to “10 % reduction” in the market of essential goods from the Greek government.

Continuing the “fourth truth”, Al. Tsipras stressed that the Stability Program also includes “a projected evolution, according to the RD that made it up, of the average wage of wage labor for the period 2023-2026.” “This is 12.8% in nominal terms, that is, exactly half of what is included in the pre-election commitment in the ND program Through the Eyes of the World, where they talk about a nominal increase of 25% until 2027,” he said. said, accusing the ND of “lying about the average salary of 1,500 euros” because “in constant prices, that is, in terms of the purchasing power of workers, the cumulative wage growth over the four-year period 2023-2026 close to a meager 1.3%.” “And it is noteworthy that the average increase in the real wages of workers over this period is much less than the average increase in labor productivity, which is in the region of 7%. In other words, this is a pure policy of redistribution of national income at the expense of employees,” he added.

Regarding the “fifth truth”, he once again accused the ND of “deliberately using inflation as a hidden tax – the most backward progressive tax – thus raising about 6 billion euros in excess of what was budgeted for 2022 and 2023”.

Ending with one “extra great truth” about public health, Al. Tsipras emphasized that based on all of the above, “we understand why the statements of the ND MP Mr. Pnevmatikos were not a mistake”, but “an agenda that the ND hid and revealed.” In fact, he also referred to the position of Kyriakos Mitsotakis during a parliamentary debate in 2019, during which he stated that “you will shudder at the reforms that we are planning in the field of public health.” “Then the pandemic came and the plan was not implemented. We winced at the state of the NHS. But it’s time to shudder at the hidden plans he has in the field of healthcare,” Al said. Tsipras, referring to other statements by Mr. Pneumatikos “about the real position of the ND on saving health care costs.”

“This hidden ND program is fully in line with the primary spending cuts it envisages over the medium term. This is the true voting rate on June 25,” he concluded.

Source: RES-IPE