The government does not dare take on powerful interests

Statements by the General Secretary of AKEL S.Stefanou

• There is no political will to protect households from poverty

7 May 2024, Dialogos portal

The cost of living is putting a lot of pressure on society. AKEL insists and reiterates that there are ways and resources to protect people, but its proposals are not being listened to by the government. Asked about the reasons why the government does not take these proposals into account, whether they are unworkable or whether there is something else behind them, the General Secretary of AKEL, Stefanos Stefanou, stresses that it is first and foremost a matter of philosophy.

“Problems don’t have a colour, but solutions do. And when we say problems have colour, we primarily mean whose interests are served by the solutions decided. It is another issue, of course, whether one feels or knows people’s problems. The current government, just like the previous one, obviously does not understand the problems that exist in society as a result of the ongoing price increases and expensiveness. The measures taken by the government to provide relief to households and small and medium-sized enterprises are inadequate. The government constantly refers to the state’s limited possibilities and that it does not want to undermine ‘fiscal stability’.

At the same time, however, the Christodoulides government is celebrating the economy’s performance and the surplus it is making. So surpluses and possibilities do exist.”

According to S.Stefanou, “the state has accumulated an additional 2.5 billion euros in revenues over the last two years because of the ongoing price increases. What it gave is less than half a billion. In addition, AKEL told the government that there are sources from which the state can get revenues from in order to implement social policies. One such source is the windfall profits of the banks and the huge profits of the big energy companies.

Given that the government, following the example of the previous government, doesn’t dare take on powerful interests, does not touch the capital of windfall profits and super profits, we have decided to do so and have for that reason submitted a relevant bill proposal in Parliament. By doing so it will, once again, become clear who sides with society and who sides with the powerful economic interests.

At the same time as the government is citing the need for fiscal stability, it has gone ahead and abolished taxes on the rich, thus taking millions and millions of revenues away from the state. I am talking about the abolition of the 350 euro tax on companies and the abolition of the tax on deposits.”

Asked about how AKEL proposes to make this arrangement, Stefanos Stefanou says that AKEL proposes that this be done in stages. “The fee for small companies should be abolished, whilst it should apply for medium, large and very large companies, for which 350 euros is a ludicrous amount. In fact, we were of the opinion to increase the fee for these companies.

As for the tax on deposits, we proposed that it should be graduated in favour of small deposits, but the government and the parliamentary majority had a different view. But by taking millions away from the state, you take away its ability to implement social policies.

It is therefore incomprehensible that the government and the parties that supported the flat tax abolition should talk about the need for fiscal stability.

I also note that when they talk about social policy they all insist on targeted measures and when they talk about taxes they promote a general abolition, with the result that instead of protecting the lower middle strata, their policy suits the rich. Targeting is needed on social measures, just as on taxes. However, there are cases where horizontal measures need to be taken, such as on the fuel subsidy or the reduction of VAT on electricity as proposed by AKEL”.