Prime Minister Antonis Samaras will have his first meeting with the heads of the troika delegation at 13:00 at the Maximos mansion. At 11:00, immediately after his swearing-in, Finance Minister Ioannis Stournaras would also hold a meeting with the troika. On Wednesday, representatives of the three parties in the coalition government, (ND, PASOK and DIM.AR) held meetings to prepare a policy ahead of Samaras' policy platform presentation in Parliament on Friday afternoon. The meeting included Chrysanthos Lazaridis (from New Democracy), Costas Skandalidis (from PASOK) and Dimitris Chatzisokratis (from DHMAR).
In regards to the Troika, the representatives suggest that all imposed taxes be paid in smaller installments so that it can ease the burden on taxpayers. All three representatives also reject the obligation by the previous government of PASOK to proceed with thousands of layoffs in the public sector stressing that fiscal benefits will be minuscule and that this will directly increase unemployment. In return they suggested the abolition of various state organizations and agencies, with the employees being placed on labor reserve or transferred to other posts, but only after undergoing evaluation.
A new electoral law, and amendments to the laws concerning the political system altogether will not be directly addressed by Samaras in his policy platform on Friday, but they will rather be addressed later on and included in the constitutional revision, which may begin in June 2013. However, as a commitment large voting districts will be partitioned, and the main criterion in each new segment will not allow for more than six MPs to be elected.
Finally, the good news is that the three representatives agreed to proceed with an amendment on the Ragoussi law regarding illegal migrants. The new legislation will provide that children of illegal immigrants will only receive Greek nationality at the age of 18, rather than from birth, but they have to first renounce the nationality of their parents. This is a good move, because many foreigners were coming into Greece and giving birth and then returning to their countries and claiming state benefits. This will also grant citizenship to immigrants that deserve it, rather than to whomever illegally enters Greece. (Reference here made in - isotimia)
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