“One generation will not pass the debt to the next” clarified the Minister of National Economy and Finance, Kyriakos Pierrakakis in a video he posted on social media, following an interview he gave to @Ta_neagr channel. Responding to a question about how early repayment of public debt from the bailout era benefits citizens and the Greek economy, Mr. Pierrakakis categorically states: “There is a benefit. We save 800 million euros per year from 2029 onwards. Why do we save this? Because the first bailout was extremely expensive. The interest rates of the first bailout were very high.”
“The political message for me,” adds Mr. Pierrakakis, is “the political message of a generation: that we will not pass the debt to the next one.” He also emphasizes “an intangible benefit: the symbolism in the markets. This is not insignificant. In the markets right now, take the 10-year Greek bond, the 10-year Italian bond, the 10-year French bond. We are performing much better each year. And this, the people watching us may not perceive directly and may say ‘what role does it play for me that the 10-year bond yields are low?’. It does play a role. Because if the economy is doing well, we have more investments, more jobs, better-paid jobs. All these add up. This is the benefit,” emphasizes Kyriakos Pierrakakis.
Pierrakakis on constitutional revision and judiciary leadership
In his post, Mr. Pierrakakis also refers to the discussion about constitutional revision. When asked whether “the judiciary itself can choose its own leaders,” Mr. Pierrakakis emphasizes that he has very strong reservations about this. “I would personally tell you that a mixed system is the most rational, based on what I have seen happening overall in other European countries,” he says, explaining that a mixed system works where the judiciary itself acts – possibly with a pre-selection
