With or without Memoranda the policies are the same

 

Statement of Yiannos Lamaris, Parliamentary Leader of AKEL-Left-New Forces Parliamentary Group

AKEL C.C. Press Office, 19th October 2015, Nicosia

Today the Government again showed that it is only interested in the economy’s numbers and indicators. It is unable to comprehend the reality that people are suffering from today.

The Minister of Finance tried awkwardly to paint a different picture of the situation at the same time as:

• 230,000 people, that is to say approximately one third of our fellow citizens are living in poverty and social exclusion,

• 70,000 are unemployed,

• 30,000 of our fellow citizens have emigrated in the past 2 years abroad

• The health system is collapsing,

• The foreclosures and evictions from people’s homes are imminent.

• Social benefits, which are statistically the lowest in Europe, have been cut to dangerous levels.

Just from the above figures everyone understands that neither are numbers, nor the people prospering.

As for the 2016 state budget, it doesn’t disprove the philosophy of the two previous years and it certainly doesn’t represent a tool for growth. The welfare state is kept contracted and development expenditures are increasing by just 5% after having been reduced by 30% in 2 years.

We therefore wonder: who will bring growth? Will it be the banks with the highest interest rates in the whole of Europe who refuse to lend to the economy? Will it be the minimal foreign investment and the state’s limited development funds, or will it be the policy of privatizations?

This is the Government’s “notorious” success story, which it will indeed pursue even after the supposed termination of the Memorandum because whether the Finance Minister and the DISY party Government consider the Troika a blessing or not, the bottom line is that they deliberately choose to put the Troika and its policies over and above the needs of society. They will continue to do so in the future too, with or without Memoranda.