Government celebrations about the formal exit from the Memorandum a provocation
The Memorandum leaves a legacy of increasing inequality to an unprecedented and tragic degree
Statement of Georgos Loucaides, AKEL C.C. Spokesperson
AKEL C.C. Press Office, 8th March 2016, Nicosia
The Memorandum leaves as a legacy the growth in inequality to an unprecedented and tragic degree. The government and ruling force´s celebrations about the formal exit from the Memorandum, which incidentally was foreseen in the Agreement that was signed with the Troika, are a provocation for citizens, who are paying a very heavy economic and social price for the policies that were imposed because of it.
The unprecedented social inequality and insecurity, poverty and long-term unemployment are all the result of the Memoranda policies imposed, which represent the government and ruling force´s ideological manifesto as they themselves admit.
For things to change, the government is called upon to abandon its Memoranda logic of devastating austerity.
The government and ruling forces are called upon, instead of cutting wages and benefits from the non-privileged, to make fiscal buffers and begin to invest in sustainable growth which creates jobs and added value to the economy.
Instead of dismantling the welfare state, the government and ruling forces must finally enhance it so that it is able to meet the practical needs of the vulnerable groups of the population, pensioners on low pensions, the unemployed and all those suffering from the economic crisis.
Instead of the government and ruling forces insisting on the sell-off of the profitable Semi-governmental organizations, it is imperative that they support them so that with their modernization they will continue to contribute tens of millions of euros every year to Cyprus.
That’s how the exit from the Memorandum will be of value. Otherwise, it will remain a formal event which the government and ruling forces will use as a smokescreen to promote their anti-social policies.
