A revealing account of the first steps and organizational readiness of the party of Maria Karustianou appeared by Maria Negreponti-Delivani.
Speaking on “Live News” on Friday afternoon (22/5), the distinguished economist, professor and former rector of the University of Macedonia proceeded to admissions that shed light on the background of the preparation of the new body.
Mrs Negreponti-Delivani, who supports the effort, expressed optimism about the prospects of the project, noting, “I hope that the party with its positions will be able to offer things that are missing.”
However, the discussion took an interesting turn when asked specifically about the guidelines and content of the party’s economic programme. Her answer revealed that there is still a significant backlog in this area.
“The party still does not have a coherent economic programme,” the former rector pointed out.
The economist and colleague of Maria Karystianou said: “We need to separate short-term and long-term plans. In the short term, there should be immediate intervention for the situation that prevails in Greece for a large part of the population, who basically cannot finish the month with the salary they have. Therefore, there must be an immediate intervention so that people can live. Increase wages, reduce indirect taxes which are too high and increase direct taxes for those who have high incomes.”
The economist explaining how the increase in direct taxes would be done suggested: “Direct taxes should fall on those with high incomes. It should go up to at least to 55 to 60% on very high incomes like 250,000 to 300,000 a year. On the remark that there are very few people with such incomes, he said “it looks that way because there is a lot of tax evasion”.
Asked about her lessed statement that “Greece could leave the euro if this solution was better economically,” she stressed that: “The EU has big problems and it is doubtful that it will continue to be an EU. On the drachma, which is a dangerous issue, journalists have made it a dangerous issue. It is not possible to treat the drachma as a bogeyman. The national currency is an extremely powerful force and much more powerful than the euro“.
“The drachma will not come although I want to refer you to Epstein and what he says about the drachma as pathetic as Epstein was that Greece would be better off with the drachma if it was with the euro. I believe. I argued that there should have been an investigation before people dared to put their signatures on the murderous memoranda“, he also said.
