“What PASOK did with the banks sent a wrong message”
“We always try to keep good housekeeping. We don’t give more than we can handle. Of course, we also have the right to give them in the time we think and it was the prime minister’s right to respond to some requests with justification”, emphasized the Minister of Finance, Kostis Hatzidakisspeaking to “Society Hour MEGA” a few days after the 2025 budget was passed.
“One was that the low-income pensioners who got a pension after the 20s and who would potentially be EKAS beneficiaries, should also get free medicines. The second was a decades-old demand by the military and security forces for a hazard allowance. We measured it, we saw that we cannot give 100 euros for the whole of 2025 because we have reached the spending limit, so we said in the second 6 months 100 euros per month. From 2026 onwards, they will be given normally every year”, he emphasizes.
For banks: “What PASOK did sent a wrong message. Once we had completed the privatization of the banks, with the extraordinary taxation we would not only send the wrong message to those who came and put their money, as investments, in the banks, we would also send a message to the international investment community that Greece comes every now and then and imposes extraordinary taxation. Yes, what happened to the electric companies and the refineries happened, but these happened all over Europe on the occasion of the energy crisis. We should be more careful here.”
As the minister notes, “we did something which, yes, comes to answer an existing social problem and to bank behavior that is irritating to citizens, to supplies, without destabilizing banks. And this was also seen afterwards. It was a measured intervention, more substantial. After discussions with the banks, we concluded that they will give 100,000,000 in addition to the commissions for the “Marietta Giannakou” program for the renovation of schools and another 100,000,000 to start the agency for the acquisition and re-leasing of properties for our vulnerable fellow citizens.”
“We gave everything the budget could handle. No prime minister and no finance minister wants not to give, if he has. We’ve run out of options. We have about 34 billion in the budget. pension costs. About 17 do not come from contributions but from taxation. (…) Greece is the first country in Europe to contribute the budget to the pension system”, he adds. “The money goes to society and goes to important needs.”
Swiss franc borrowers: “It is something we are studying. It is not a simple thing that can be decided overnight. We will look to find a fair solution.”
Presumptive taxation of the self-employed: “The law was passed last year, now corrections and interventions have been made in the tax bill. With the interventions we have made, the average freelancer pays slightly more tax than the average employee. I don’t think it’s unfair. Our tax system is constantly being modernized.”
Closed houses: “In the banks, ENFIA is doubled, the banks have 20,000 something properties. With the double ENFIA, we are pressuring the banks and servicers to put them on the market. The supply is increasing. We have passed the incentives for closed houses in the last three years, so that the owner does not pay tax if he rents them out, and this can help to some extent.”
Concluding his interview, Kostis Hatzidakis says: “There are currently three issues that concern us and should concern us. Banks, rents and punctuality. (…) We have problems but the country is rising”.
