The Alternate Minister of National Defence Dimitris Vitsas in an interview that he gave on SKAI television network to journalist Maria Anastasopoulou on Wednesday, December 28, 2016, stated, among other things:
Regarding the issue of the 13th pension and the letter of the Minister of Finance Euclid Tsakalotos to the institutions:
“There is an extra pension, in 2016, to be paid to one million six hundred people and, in addition, the VAT will remain unchanged in several islands which are affected by the refugee crisis, in 2017. The position of certain parties reinforces the opinion that in Greece there is no opposition, but a procedure of talking without any arguments.
If the refugee issue still exists within 2018, this will be reconsidered and I think that it will be continued. If the refugee issue still exists in November or December 2017 – which will happen in my opinion – we will extend this measure for 2018 too.
In Mr. Tsakalotos’ letter, it is also mentioned how the excess of the surplus which will be 1,75% in 2017, will be used. The sectors, to which it is allocated, are also mentioned and this sector is among them too. In my opinion, it is not just probable, but sure.
I will re-examine this issue in April 2017 when an excess of over 0,5% will have been confirmed for 2016 and we will discuss it again and take some measures of reimbursements and not of cuts. The excessive surplus, beyond the amount that has to be paid for the debt, will be appointed to certain social sectors, as Mr. Tsakalotos mentioned in his letter.
This will happen in April 2017, not in one year from now, when the final results of the surplus will have been announced. Our obligation is to achieve a surplus of 0,5% and I am sure that the result will be much higher than that, as our information shows. It does not require for an approval by the institutions because it is within the terms of the agreement. A part will be spent for the debt, a part will be used as a reserve fund and another part may be spent by the government for social benefits. What we did now came from the excess of the revenues.
If we didn’t do that now, then we would do it in April 2017. We gave one part now and we will give another part in April probably for other sectors or perhaps for the same sector. In December 2017, if we exceed 1,75% – I remind you that our budget forecasts a surplus of 2,1% – then new decisions on social policy will be made.
The 3,5% surplus predicted for 2018 has been signed not only by the government, but by the entire Parliament as well; it is a term of the 3rd Memorandum which we discussed in August 2015. Discussing it now is pointless. We will discuss it when the second and third evaluations are completed and we have a clear image of the political situation in Europe. Then we will be able to discuss it, but for now we have signed it.
On our part, the second evaluation has been completed; the budget of 2018 has been completed without any new measures. The issue of the short-term measures for the debt based on the decision made by Eurogroup in May was a part of the first evaluation, so the institutions are wrong; they cannot relate it to the second evaluation.
Regarding the second evaluation, according to the institutions themselves, there is no problem with the figures; it is, mostly, a political problem. I believe that in January the issue will be closed, since from March on various political procedures will begin and this should not remain pending during the developments in Italy, because things in Italy and perhaps in Spain too are not good at all; I am not saying that they are good in Greece, in the sense that when a country is under supervision, when it needs the institutions, things cannot be good”.
When asked whether the elections could be a weapon for the government, he answered:
“No. I would like somebody to answer me what elections could offer in reality and not in theory. The New Democracy party says “you should leave, so we will come and do it better”. This is what they think, but what will they do better? Simply “we will do what they ask, and we will do even more”.
I am saying this: What we really care for today is for the second evaluation to be completed, for the issue of the instalments of June and July 2017 to be closed and to proceed to the third evaluation, until the fifth evaluation in summer 2018 when it will be probably announced that the period of the memoranda is over for Greece. If the procedures of the memoranda have been completed it does not mean that everything will be excellent.
Through this procedure, we should promote the reconstruction of the public sector, the reconstruction of our country’s productivity and the procedures of redistribution of growth; because without any growth, we can do nothing. This gives us the safety to do a few things:
One of them is to strengthen the social cohesion, to increase our participation and our power in whatever takes place in Europe and in the rest of the world; the other one is to build a new type of social state with relieving social policies and opposite to the what can be named as punishing neoliberalism”.
