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| (Photo credit: Wikipedia) |
Speaking to the To Vima newspaper at the weekend, Greek Prime Minister Antonis Samaras praised the primary surplus that has been achieved, and explained that the debt relief and return to the markets will be based on this success. Samaras told to Vima that his goal is to gradually reduce the rates of VAT, income tax and of course, real estate tax. Specifically Samaras is planning to reduce real estate tax by 38% by 2016.
While he proudly announced that a significant portion of this surplus will return to society -such as pensioners and uniformed officers- the office of former PM George Papandreou came out with a statement that more or less slammed everything the prime minister said.
Specifically, the press officer and close associate of Papandreou, George Elenopoulos -who always pops in and makes a statement on behalf of Papandreou who is galavanting somewhere across the globe pretending to be a global thinker or some type of economic guru- actually lashed out against everyone who dares to speak of a primary surplus and who has been critical of the policies that were followed in 2010 and 2011 (or under Papandreou's reign). He said that the only reason that people speak of a primary surplus is “in a effort to appear immaculate and unblemished in the upcoming elections”. Of course he doesn't want to admit that if the government does indeed present a surplus -as announced- then his boss, Mr. Papandreou, will be ridiculed, and without a job because at the moment he is capitalizing on Greece's failed economy by speaking at various events across the globe.
In his statement, Elenopoulos said that the primary surplus “was not created with magic recipes at Zappeio” while he argues that the huge deficit created by the previous administrations was drastically reduced during those two years.
(Exactly what is Mr. Elenopoulos on because his condition screams out REHAB !!!!)
Elenopoulos also challenged Papandreou’s critics to compare the measures of the first bailout and those of the second, while he reiterated that the estimations of the second bailout were off by billions.
Papandreou’s associate was critical of the time lost “for personal gains and partisan interests” which resulted “in overthrowing an elected government”. And finally he also derided the stance of certain PASOK executives “whose scheming brought disarray to the party”.
(Oh brother...)
On his part Samaras told To Vima that Greece is exiting the recession, and entering a development age while he estimates that the economy will grow by 3% on an annual basis -or from 2016 onwards-.
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