Alexis Tsipras acknowledged the significant progress made by the Greek economy under the administration of Kyriakos Mitsotakis, exposing the officials of ELAS officials who claim the opposite.
And yet. Alexis Tsipras was forced to acknowledge that during the administration of Kyriakos Mitsotakis and New Democracy, the Greek economy made significant progress.
Of course, he didn’t do this by accident, but to tell us that he doesn’t need to impose many new taxes to deliver on his promises. In short, he told us that the economy is doing well, so… there is money.
As he stated, among other things, on Alpha: “Since 2019, the Greek economy has been outperforming expectations. There is no need to raise taxes on middle-income, low-income, or high-income earners.”
Of course, he himself had said shortly before that he would tax the very wealthy and large corporations, which will obviously have to cough up more money so the former prime minister can hand out benefits. In any case, with what he said, he gave a free pass to the officials of ELAS who, day and night on our TV channels, tell us how badly the economy is doing and that the country is heading for the abyss.
After all, that was also the rhetoric of SYRIZA while Alexis Tsipras was president.
The detail he concealed
In fact, under Kyriakos Mitsotakis, the Greek economy made great strides: it has consistently ranked among Europe’s fastest-growing economies, unemployment has fallen significantly, taxes have been cut, average and minimum wages have risen, the country has exited financial supervision, no longer runs deficits, is reducing its debt, and so much more.
So the former prime minister wanted to say that… there’s money to spare for handouts. However, there is one small detail.
Yes, there is a surplus due to the economy’s strong performance, but the EU has set a spending cap of 3.6% for 2026. And it becomes stricter in the coming years.
In short, Europe requires a specific surplus from member states, which must be used to reduce debt, and when there is an excess surplus, support for citizens is permitted, primarily through temporary measures.
Alexis Tsipras overlooked these points—and clearly not by accident: He knows that the government is already distributing the primary surplus to citizens through various support measures, but there isn’t sufficient fiscal space for the countless benefits he is promising.
Details about a politician who said he would abolish the memorandum with a single article.
Let’s remember here that Anna Diamantopoulou a few days ago regarding the Greek economy, and Haris Doukas, who is more focused on the Hellenic Police, jumped at the chance to take her down.
And one last thing: Now let the officials of ELAS go ahead and talk about how… terrible the economy is, when their own president has contradicted them.
