PASOK MP Michalis Katrinis spoke about the party’s focus on people’s problems and day-to-day concerns on OPEN’s “Ora Ellados” programme, hosted by journalists Manos Niflis and Giannis Kolokythas. With these issues at the centre of its agenda, he said, PASOK is calling on voters to support it at the ballot box.
In this context, he referred to the bill PASOK is submitting today on private debt, the suspension of foreclosure auctions, primary residences and measures for guarantors. He noted that around 33,000 auctions are currently listed at the Athens Court of First Instance alone.
He also recalled that when PASOK called for a 120-installment repayment plan, the government accused it of populism; now, the government is set to introduce the relevant measure in November.
He also sharply criticised the government over the housing problem, calling it incompetent and saying it had “slept” on the issue for seven years. He said that even with its own “My Home 2” programme, the government had managed to leave half a billion euros of its total €2 billion in funding unused because of the conditions it set. As a result, couples could not qualify even to buy a 40-year-old home.
Commenting on government officials’ claims that the ratio of housing costs to income has improved, Michalis Katrinis said that anyone hearing them make such a claim today “will jump out of the flat they rent on the third or fourth floor”.
He also called on the government to say whether it would dare to tax banks’ windfall profits, which exceeded €2.6 billion in the first half of 2026, while banks are distributing dividends totalling €650 million. He noted that neighbouring Bulgaria had gone ahead with taxing banks’ windfall profits, including those of a Greek bank.
Finally, referring to events in recent days involving opposition parties, he said their political rivalry must not become a political advantage for the government, as it allows the prime minister to sidestep the problems of everyday life.