The leader of the main opposition launched an attack on the government while speaking early Wednesday morning on Mega TV, Nikos Androulakis, discussing institutional decline and undermining of the rule of law.
Nikos Androulakis: End the “staff state,” statements on wiretapping
“In 2019, the Greek people voted for Mr. Mitsotakis because he committed to addressing the institutional decline created by Tsipras and Kammenos. Instead of addressing it, he did the same and worse. What did he do? Together with his nephew, they created a gang at Maximos Mansion, which influences justice, controls the flow of money and created a propaganda mechanism – through media and social media – to systematically misinform the Greek people,” the PASOK president characteristically stated. Referring to developments in the wiretapping case, he emphasized that “everything starts from Maximos Mansion,” giving two examples.
“We all know that the four chiefs of the Armed Forces were targeted by Predator. Is that so? It is. And Mr. Tzavellas ruled that we don’t need to investigate who, why and where the material that someone stole from the Armed Forces chiefs is. This is now a matter of national security. Second issue: a retired Israeli officer comes out, calls Mr. Mitsotakis ‘Nixon’ and says that ‘I only sell this software to states and state services.’ So he implicates the state and EYP, and Mr. Tzavellas doesn’t call him to say: ‘come here, you call the Prime Minister of Greece “Nixon,” you say you have evidence that you only sell to states, bring us the evidence to prove your claims,'” he characteristically stated.
“So, Mr. Tzavellas is not interested in having Greek justice – at the highest level – learn who set up a deep state against the Armed Forces and who is blackmailing the Greek Prime Minister. Great leadership of justice!” Nikos Androulakis emphasized. Responding to the government’s criticism that he attacks justice, he said “I evaluate justice decisions, because those who judge are also judged. Did I blackmail any judge? Did I personally attack anyone and organize character assassination through the media?”
Character assassinations on social media
Regarding character assassination campaigns and propaganda on social media, Mr. Androulakis referred to a recent court decision about the identity of the internet troll “Zoukov” and noted the following: “Theodosis Mougios, the well-known internet ‘Zoukov’ and columnist for the newspaper Manifesto, a known propaganda mechanism of New Democracy. This person, from what I read, is a former police officer, dismissed from the force, has half the criminal code on his back, with convictions for embezzlement, misappropriation, forgery and two years’ deprivation of political rights. He appeared as a collaborator of Mr. Livanios and was convicted as the troll ‘Zoukov’ who has often insulted me and other PASOK officials and systematically misinforms people. Who gathered these people, who gave them power, who pays them and who covers for them? The Prime Minister himself and his Maximos Mansion gang.”
“Mr. Mitsotakis’ last ‘praetors’ are the orphans of LAOS and some guys from Mrs. Pania’s entourage, these are what he has left. Even five MPs – including the previous government spokesperson – wrote articles yesterday and said that the way this ‘staff state’ operates creates enormous issues. Their own MPs confirm what we’ve been describing all this time. The ‘staff state’ must end, we must have another government, that’s why I’m fighting for political change,” Nikos Androulakis also commented, against the backdrop of the article by five “blue” MPs who criticized the government through their article in the newspaper “Ta Nea.”
VAT reduction
Referring to the government’s economic policy and its inability to curb high prices, the opposition leader repeated his proposal to reduce VAT on basic goods. “What does fair taxation mean for society? The wealthy should pay more and the weak less. What is the most unfair tax? We proposed reducing VAT on basic goods and New Democracy said ‘no.’ I went to Cyprus a month ago and President Christodoulides told me they zeroed it on basic goods. And how did they manage to pass the reduction to prices? They did inspections beforehand, recorded product prices, suddenly reduced – zeroed VAT and then did inspections again and imposed fines on those who didn’t pass it to prices. So if a state wants… how did the Republic of Cyprus achieve it and the Greek government cannot?” he wondered.
At another point, commenting on returning dividends to society, he emphasized that “through high prices it has over-performance in VAT and Special Consumption Tax. Because the higher prices are due to inflation, the more revenue it has from VAT and Special Consumption Tax. So, it takes billions from one pocket and whenever Mr. Mitsotakis has a polling need, he gives a piece – much smaller than revenues – to society and says ‘here, I’m supporting you.’ There are other ways to support society, institutionally. That is, by bringing Special Consumption Tax taxation to the European average since we’re among the countries with the highest SCT. Making housing interventions, institutional ones, with social housing, with rent ceilings in pressure zones. Because the one rent return per year that the government implements is essentially taken by the market and raises rents even more.”
“Pressure zones can be created, meaning each municipality does a study, we see what the situation is with rents and make two big moves. One is limiting short-term rentals, meaning fewer Airbnbs, thus more long-term rentals. And the second is rent ceilings that will have to do with criteria too. That is, a house that is very old and has serious weaknesses, must have a ceiling on rent increases with specific criteria. What I’m saying happens in other European states. We have a 50% increase in rents in four years. And we had +10% this year. That is, after the one rent per year they gave with certain criteria, we have a further 10% increase in rents,” he added.
At the same time, focusing on PASOK’s legislative initiative for banks given the interest rate gap between deposits-loans, commissions and overcharging. “To pressure them to show a social face, we proposed taxing their profits at 8%, which last year reached 4.6 billion euros. In fact, they will give 2.8 billion euros in dividends that will be taxed at 5% instead of 15% that PASOK had, Tsipras made it 10% and Mitsotakis 5%. That is, with 5% taxation, shareholders will receive so many billions in dividends,” he said.
Merit-based appointments and transparency
Regarding the institutional interventions that PASOK proposes for merit-based appointments and transparency, Mr. Androulakis, referring to the OPEKEPE case, noted:
“AADE is a makeshift and temporary solution. That is, this could be done for a short period. We must certify a new OPEKEPE, which will have a four-year term leadership that no one can change. So, it will be autonomous from the ministry’s and each government’s favoritism. What does our program say? All these positions will have a term, four or five years, which will not coincide with the electoral cycle, will be done through open competition and will have autonomous administration. How do you fight favoritism? When the other person is not dependent on you. If I don’t appoint the OPEKEPE president nor does the minister, can anyone easily pick up the phone?”
Finally, Mr. Androulakis again put forward the imperative of political change. “We say nice things and we’ll do nice things. I ask the Greek people to trust me, because my course has neither favoritism nor entanglement nor games with justice nor with media. Those who did these things belong to the country’s bad past and this past is causing damage today too. We must change. The unrepentant must be put in history’s closet,” he concluded.
