Theano Koufonikolaou dismissed Alexis Tsipras and his promise of pay raises for healthcare and education workers.
Alexis Tsipras is generally not considered reliable when it comes to his promises, but for his own party officials to dismiss him— was something we didn’t even see back when he was president of SYRIZA. Now, however, this is happening within the Hellenic Police as well.
A few days ago, the former prime minister made a series of promises, competing with Nikos Androulakis, saying, among other things, that he would give a €500 raise to doctors and teachers. For Tsipras to promise money—what could be stranger, one might say.
Koufonikolaou’s response
However, the press spokesperson for ELAS, Theano Koufonikolaou, when asked where the money would come from for all the promises Alexis Tsipras is making right from the start of his new party, somewhat… clouded the image of the money trees.
As she stated in an interview: “Alexis Tsipras announced at the economic forum a €500 raise for doctors and teachers. But we’ll see. He also mentioned including teachers in the special pay scale. But listen. A responsible approach—because citizens also share this mindset during the pre-election period—means that we must gather all the data regarding revenue, obtain all the data from the General Accounting Office, so that we can speak based on a concrete analysis.”
What did the spokesperson for ELAS tell us, in a nutshell, with a bunch of evasions? That Alexis Tsipras may have made the proposal but didn’t provide any cost estimates, so we’ll have to see how—and if—we can find the money.
In other words, the former prime minister threw a promise into the void—along with so many others—just to impress people and win a few votes. And we’ll see.
In any case, being contradicted by your own party’s spokesperson takes political delusion to a whole new level. And we’re still just getting started.
Here’s a video of the interview:
