Greek elections: Opposition in Athens promises big spending program

Greek elections
Opposition in Athens promises big spending program

The election campaign in Greece is in the final spurt – the politicians are again making big promises. Raising the minimum wage, 13th monthly pension and automatic inflation adjustment: The opposition Left Party announced extensive plans at its last campaign rally.

The opposition left-wing party Syriza promises the Greeks a strong welfare state if they win the parliamentary elections on Sunday. “We will immediately raise the minimum wage to 880 euros and introduce automatic annual inflation adjustment for all wages,” said Syriza boss Alexis Tsipras in front of thousands of supporters at his last major campaign event in Athens.

Tsipras promised that pensions should also increase. In addition, a 13th monthly pension is to be paid annually in the future. The left wants to bring the ailing health system into shape as well as education, where Tsipras wants, among other things, to double the number of teachers at universities. He did not say how these and many other state investments should be financed. Tsipras described his opponent, the conservative head of government Kyriakos Mitsotakis with the Nea Dimokratia (ND) party, as heartless. “His main characteristic is the lack of empathy – he doesn’t feel what people feel.” In recent years, Mitsotakis has primarily focused on strengthening the Greek economy.

In polls, Syriza is around 28 percent a good seven percentage points behind the conservatives. In the past, the strongest party was automatically given 50 seats in the 300-strong parliament after the election. That made it easier to form a government, but the smaller parties were left behind and mostly one-party governments came about – the New Dimokratia, too, has ruled alone for the past four years. During his tenure, Tsipras (2015 – 2019) enforced the simple system of proportional representation, which now applies to this election. He wants to come to power with a centre-left coalition. However, the potential coalition partner, the social democratic party Pasok, has not yet decided in the run-up to the elections whether it would enter into a coalition with the conservatives or the left.

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