Just two weeks before the general elections on May 21, Greek Prime Minister KyriakosM Mitsotakis announced three financial support measures for youth, home owners and civil servants.
Mitsotakis announced the measures during a meeting with ‘citizens’ at the Elefsina shipyards on Sunday.
In an obvious effort to “buy” votes from the youth that vote for the first time this year and the civil servants, he announced:
1) Youth Pass: 150 euros per year for every young person of 18 and 19 years old (approximately 200,000 beneficiaries per year) for cultural, touristic activities and transport. The cost of the Youth Pass reaches 30 million euros per year.
2) Reduction in unified property tax ENFIA by 10% for properties insured for natural disasters. Insurance must be for the entire year. The cost reaches 40 million euros.
3) The payroll of civil servants is restructured (uniform payroll and special payrolls) with an emphasis on the low-paid, those in positions of responsibility, Civil servants who are parents will see an increase in the family allowance, i.e. from 50 euros to 70 euros for those with one child, from 70 euros to 120 euros for those with two children and from 120 euros to 170 for those with three children, as of 1/1/2024. The cost is at 500 million euros.
Questions arising by these measures are;
1) ENFIA if you pay 250 euros/year, you get a €25 discount but you pay some 180 euro for the insurance.
Mean Greeks suspect that the measure is a gift to insurance companies ‘sold’ to voters as “social measure.”
2) Children allowance: it looks as if private sector children belong to a “lesser God.”
The usual mean Greeks suspect also that these measures are clearly a sign that ruling New Democracy does not doing as well as expected in public opinion polls.
