The government should immediately support the professionals, society, the people who support the economy, stressed the president of ELAS Alexis Tsipras, at the meeting with the Board of Directors of the Panhellenic Union of Transport Enterprises
As Mr. Tsipras stated, “the day before yesterday it was the farmers, yesterday it was the fishermen, today it is the transport operators. The main thing that emerges from all these mobilizations, these demands, is that the energy cost is not sustainable. It is now so high that in key professional sectors that support the economy, the cost is now excessive. And this cost is passed on to the citizen, passed on to the consumer, it goes to households. Today the draft budget is being submitted. This provides for excessive surpluses for the current year. Once again it provides for a surplus of over 4%. Which means that when something happens for the fourth consecutive year, surpluses above the target by more than 3-4 billion euros. This is not accidental, it is not a mistake, a repeated mistake, it is not a mistake. It is a deliberate underestimation.
It is a deliberate poor execution of the budget, so that ex post, as they say, later in April, the government can give some money, millions, perhaps even billions, by way of a tip, and indeed this year in a pre-election period, that is, to buy votes shortly before the elections. It must immediately give this money at the pump, to the professionals, to the people who support the economy. We are talking about an excess surplus of more than 4-5 billion euros. So let the joke end. Where will it find the money? Let this joke end. It has found it in the public coffers. From VAT, which remains high, while inflation is running at 3% and 4%. And here, to answer questions as well, this has been happening for the last four years; during the memorandum period, the logic of surpluses supported a national goal, we would not have gotten out of the memorandums.
In recent years, now that we have gotten out of the memorandums, it supports no national goal. It supports only the prime minister’s ability every April to hand out tips. Today, however, we have a crisis that exceeds the limits. What we will experience this winter in relation to the cost of living and energy prices will be something we have never experienced before. It is therefore required immediately to request from the European Commission. To inform, I would say, the European Commission, and to pour into the economy this money that belongs to Greek taxpayers, the excess surplus, so that homes can be heated and your trucks can move, so that the fishermen’s caiques can move and the tractors can move.
And I want to remind you, in relation to the permission of the European Union, whatever you claim, you get. In 2016 I did not ask Schäuble, we were under a memorandum, and I gave money to pensioners. The first social dividend. Do we remember these things? Or have we forgotten them? So, if the government wants, it can. This money belongs to Greek taxpayers, it must give it. Now beyond that there are also a series of other tools.
We will hear your problems and your demands. Tolls, ferry tickets, the reduction of the cost can be achieved through many factors and many sides, isn’t that so? And of course your institutional demands, the need to create infrastructure that does not exist today to support your work. All these are issues that we must look at, the shortage that exists in drivers. These are issues that we must look at in a serious and structured way, because it concerns the strengthening of a sector which, I repeat, supports. It is a basic infrastructure of the economy and essentially supports the entire supply chain”.