Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras announced that the government will revoke the austerity measure of broadening the tax-free basis with a draft law to come to Parliament before the early elections on July 7, 2019.
In a live interview to state ERT TV on last night, Tsipras said that the draft law will come to the Parliament on upcoming Friday, reportedly the last day the Parliament will work before it dissolves early next week.
As austerity measure broadening of the tax-free basis was enforced by the International Monetary Fund in 2016 would tax annual incomes below 6,000 euros in order to achieve high primary surpluses. The Law, adopted by the Tsipras government in 2017, is to be implemented as of 1. January 2020.
Asked whether Greece’s creditors -the European Commission, the European Central Bank and the International Monetary Fund – were aware of the government initiative to revoke the tax-free basis, Tsipras said that they know of it and there is agreement on it.
On the same interview, Tsipras called on New Democracy to participate in the voting. Before the EU elections ND leader Kyriakos Mitsotakis had urged Tsipras to bring the said law to the parliament. however, ahead of the snap elections, Mitsotakis and ND decided to not attend works in the parliament claiming that the government was “illegal”, should resign and replaced by a care taker government.
Mitsotakis has been accusing Tsipras of trying to pass last-minutes laws before the elections are declared.
Tsipras pointed out that 83% of the tax burdens Greek society feels “were introduced by those who are now appearing as saviors.”
Commenting on the European elections defeat, the Prime Minister said that “it reflects the accumulated exhaustion of the middle class” and that “this was demonstrated in the ballot boxes.”
He added that of the one million citizens who voted for SYRIZA in 2015, 600,000 voters did not go to the ballot boxes in order to punish the ruling party, while 400,000 people voted for smaller parties.
He stressed that people had no time to realize the benefits of the “relief measures” which were implemented short before the EU elections. He implied a package of measures in favor of the middle classes, even though there is hardly time to bring such a package to the Parliament.
Tsipras seemed confident that the 9.5% difference to ND at the EU elections is now “zero” and that the elections race starts from the beginning.
He reiterated that he will go to the President of the Republic to ask him to announce early elections. The so-called “national reason” for the election is “to protect the economy from a prolonged pre-elections period.”
Tsipras had to changed his plant for elections in October 2019, after the grave defeat on May 26.
Dismissing media scenarios, Tsipras said that the early elections will take place on July 7.
