A double shield of protection for heating oil was announced on Monday morning (21/09) by Minister of National Economy and Finance and Eurogroup President, Kyriakos Pierrakakis. In a television interview on SKAI, Mr. Pierrakakis emphasized that “the first part concerns the fact that if the heating season opened today, the price would be at €2. We have said that the season will start below where it closed last year at €1.75. We also have the heating allowance. There will be an across-the-board increase without any changes to the eligibility criteria or beneficiaries.”
Read also: Pierrakakis: The energy crisis requires citizen support and investments that will permanently reduce costs for households and businesses
He noted that “France holds the G7 presidency and has convened a summit, and I understand that the French presidency’s proposal is to release reserves in order to bring down oil prices.” Additionally, Kyriakos Pierrakakis stated that “reserves exist even for worst-case scenarios. The opposition was telling us to give everything now, back in spring. We held the Thessaloniki International Fair and here we are, two weeks later, making announcements on support measures against the energy cost crisis. Reserves are not infinite — the move being made by the Greek economy and government is one that other countries simply cannot make.”
Kyriakos Pierrakakis on the heating allowance: “Reserves are not infinite”
When asked about the possibility of reducing the Special Consumption Tax (SCT), he explained that “in politics, you have to be able to make all the right moves — it’s not a wish list. The Prime Minister said that beyond national measures — and we rank 3rd as a percentage of GDP in purely energy-related spending — what matters to us is not the specific tax but the fiscal space available. Whether it’s the SCT, worth €4.2 billion per year — that’s two Thessaloniki International Fairs — or VAT, worth €2 billion, what concerns us in worst-case scenarios is whether we will have the fiscal room to support citizens. We can commit that Greece will do everything within its national and fiscal capacity to support its people.”
Primary residence protection measures
Also asked about the out-of-court settlement mechanism and the protection shield being raised as of today for primary residences, Mr. Pierrakakis said: “We wanted to build an effective primary residence protection mechanism. That is what has been put in place today — not the Katseli Law. What we are saying is that the out-of-court mechanism is being transformed into a primary residence protection tool. The out-of-court mechanism has already produced 70,000 debt settlements; we reduced the eligibility threshold and are now turning it into a tool for protecting people’s primary homes. People will still pay, but according to what they can actually afford.”
Comments on the German state elections
Finally, when asked to comment on Sunday evening’s election results in two German federal states, which saw yet another surge for the AfD, Kyriakos Pierrakakis responded: “As a Greek finance minister and member of parliament, I will say that we have lived firsthand in our own country what populism means. Populists are good at describing problems but not at providing solutions in the best-case scenario. In the worst case, they come and add even more problems when they govern. There is one formula for all of us who want to solve real problems: full throttle on reforms and genuine care for every citizen. We will be there to support every step taken by European governments that want to achieve exactly that.”
