Greece’s Development Minister and Vice of ruling New Democracy, Adonis Georgiadis, unfolded the ruthless neo-liberal vision of the government and threatened small and medium size businesses that they will not have access to bank loans. In an interview with Kontra TV on Tuesday night, the Minister threatened that small businesses that they will die out if they don’t merge. – Or be acquired for a bag of peanuts.
“In order for small business to survive, they should merge with other similar-sized ones in order to have access to loans and funding, or else they will die out,” Georgiadis said.
The politician who is known for his populist rhetoric claimed that “businesses with 2-3 employees in the European Union do not have access to the banks “, said Adonis Georgiadis.
He added that loans from the EU Recovery Fund will go through the banks and will be given to small and medium enterprises, only if they merge or are acquired by larger companies.
In his usual and well-known populist rhetoric, he also claimed that there are no businesses with up to 3-4 employees across the European Union. If only…. ⇓
According to the minister, if a small and medium-sized enterprise wants to survive, it must “follow the rules of the modern economy”, which means merging because for the government, Greek small and medium-sized enterprises are too small to be saved.
Only businesses with over 250 employees could survive.
Of course, the whole “plan” is as surreal and impossible as it gets in the sense that the labor policy of ND tends to scrap employment and have freelancers wondering around. At the same time it has been encouraging the youth all the time to “be entrepreneurs.”
How will this happen in the real life and not in the reports of the OECD, the IMF and the Pissaridis proposals?
Only the former telemarketing book-seller and “the best minister of the last 30 years” (as he praised himself on Kontra TV) Adonis Georgiadis knows #not.
But let’s be honest. It’s not just the cynical ND in Greece supporting such plans. Many of us can very well recall, the famous
Juncker Plan where the money would be channeled only to big businesses and projects.
PS I went to the kiosk next door for a chocolate but the man was very busy. He was kind of upset and he was speaking on the phone moving his free hand up and down and shaking his head in disappointment from time to time. Minutes later, he hang the phone fuming and told me he spoke Elon Musk trying to reach the best possible deal for a merger. They would continue negotiations next week… *rolling eyes*
Hewlett Packard started as 2 engineers in a garage designing and making scientific instruments. Microsoft started as 2 budding computer engineers. Apple was stared by 3 young engineers. All today’s big companies started as very small ones.
The reality is that ND gets funding from very large corporations and not from very small companies so they don’t care about them.
Under ND, HP, MS and Apple would die for lacking satisfying number of employees.
That is correct. You must get swallowed up by the Big Ones (Banks, pharma, agro, IT, AI, tech, oil) who in this day and age do not give a damn about their customers, employees or their community. They only care about their stockholders and the bonuses they will get if the stock price goes up; which in the end foments corruption to equal that of any government. The middle class must be wiped out!! Right? Disgusting.
The joke is on Georgiades, since none of these Greek enterprises (70% + of the economy) have access to bank loans anyway.
Given the Greek reality I suggest that the low IQers at ND be forced to strictly practise what they preach.
i.e. no more paketo coffee, no more hair cuts, private doctors, handmade suits, hairdressers / barbers, housemaids and cooks. No more decorators, electricians, plumbers, architects or engineers, private tutors and nannies. No more fresh bread, fresh fish, fresh sweets, handmade curtains / furniture, 90% of farm produce. No more AirBNBs, bespoke jewellers, tavernas, most restaurants….
SMEs are the lifeline of an economy and the seams that keep the social fabric of societies together.
He’ll be growing a little moustache soon!