Cash returns to most Greek citizens from the government’s ‘Power Pass’ electricity bill subsidy did not exceed 30 or 40 euros, said Syriza-Progressive Alliance leader Alexis Tsipras in the city of Amfissa on Friday.
The prime minister “should apoligize to Greek people for the ‘power pass’ fiasco,” he added, “and he should also provide them with a sustantial and generous support program.”
The biggest current problem is the overall price hikes that affect everyone, he noted, “including professionals, traders, business people and consumers.”
Energy inflation in the European Union averages at 39%, he said, but in Greece this average stands at 62%.
This is the result of profiteering, he added, "because there is a framework of indecent profiteering by a cartel in which the otherwise Public Electricity Company is the protagonist," and he spoke of tremendous surplus profits in these services which are not taxed.
Tsipras also spoke with regional farmers, he said, who were afflicted by recent fires, and called on the government to support them immediately, as they are in dire straits with no income due to their destroyed crops.
“Ten days after the fires,” Tsipras observed, “and government officials have yet to visit the area.”