PASOK and the Greek Left Alliance (ELAS) are in the crosshairs of Akis Skertsos, who targeted both opposition parties in a recent post focused on their statements regarding economic data. The Minister of State accuses the two opposition parties of “taking the easy road” — one that “replaces political analysis with political propaganda.” He goes so far as to suggest that these analyses were conducted “probably from some beach,” since “such carelessness cannot otherwise be justified.” Skertsos, who notes that the comparison being attempted is one that “even a first-year economics student knows cannot support sound economic conclusions,” implies that the opposition parties know full well how to read economic indicators but “consciously choose” to mislead the public. He describes their approach as “selective cut-and-paste of statistical data.”
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Akis Skertsos’s full post
Once again, PASOK and ELAS — probably posting from some beach, since there is no other explanation for such carelessness — are choosing the easy path of opposition politics, substituting economic analysis with political propaganda. It is truly remarkable that parties aspiring to govern the country would present a comparison between the first quarter and the immediately preceding quarter as some supposed “economic collapse.”
This is a comparison that every first-year economics student knows cannot be used to draw reliable economic or political conclusions about disposable income — because the final quarter of every year includes Christmas bonuses, benefit payments, elevated seasonal income from tourism, and other factors that create strong seasonal effects relative to the first quarter of the following year. That is precisely why all serious economic analyses evaluate income on an annual basis, comparing each quarter with the same quarter of the previous year.
So what do the actual figures from Eurostat and the OECD actually show? Greek household disposable income grew by 3.2% in the first quarter of 2026 compared to the first quarter of 2025, reaching €39.13 billion — the highest level for a first quarter since 2010.
Even more revealing are the long-term Eurostat figures. In real terms, per capita disposable income for Greek households has risen by 17.1% since the first quarter of 2019, compared to just 7.7% across the European Union and 5.5% in the Eurozone. Greece, in other words, is recording a significantly higher rate of income growth than the rest of the Eurozone.
These are the real facts. Everything else is selective statistical cut-and-paste designed to serve a predetermined political narrative.
PASOK and ELAS are left with two possible explanations: either they do not know how to read economic indicators, or they do know and are consciously choosing to mislead the public. Neither option inspires confidence. The government is not celebrating. It is well aware that the battle to boost disposable income continues every single day, and that inflation is eroding a significant portion of the gains made.
That is why we are raising wages and pensions, cutting taxes and social security contributions, supporting employment, and implementing — from 1 January 2026 — a new tax reform that increases the disposable income of workers, young people, and families with children by the equivalent of half to four net monthly salaries. Citizens need seriousness and accountability, not hasty readings of statistics. Reality is far more powerful than propaganda.
