President Christodoulides should admit that he is continuing the Anastasiades-DISY policies on price hikes too
Statement by AKEL C.C. Spokesperson Giorgos Koukoumas
31 March 2024, AKEL C.C. Press Office, Nicosia
Nikos Christodoulides and his government not only do not take any substantive measures on price hikes and increases, but are even annoyed by the proposals AKEL submits.
- He claimed that AKEL’s proposals serve pre-election expediencies. But our proposal to tax the exorbitant profits of the banks was tabled in 2022 and in fact, in 2023, Parliament carried out a study on the implementation of this measure in other European states. Of course, Mr Christodoulides doesn’t say a single word about the record exorbitant profits of the banks, which they are siphoning off from the economy and society through the successive increases in interest rates on loans.
- He also claimed that AKEL’s proposals can’t be implemented. However, the taxation of energy companies’ excess profits is among the measures proposed by the European Commission and were supported by Mr Christodoulides himself during the presidential election campaign.
- He invoked fiscal discipline and the state’s finances to reject AKEL’s proposals and society’s demand for real measures to be taken in order to confront poverty. However, he concealed from the people that state revenues have increased, exceeding 1.5 billion euros just last year, which again come from the people who are double-paying for inflation.
He of course pretends not to remember that fiscal discipline goes out the window when it comes to giving away tens of millions of public money to big business through uncontrollable tax breaks.
So instead of making excuses, Mr. Christodoulides should be more honest and admit that he will continue – on this issue too – the policy of Nicos Anastasiades and DISY, that he will not confront powerful economic interests even when society is suffocating under the pressure of the reality of ongoing price hikes and expensiveness.
