Another €10 million dished out to Greek political parties
They got paid once for the upcoming elections by voting an amendment in the late hours of the night at the beginning of April. Not satisfied with the necks they sucked on the first time, the Greek vampire politicians are set to obtain extra funding to the tune of €10 million. Whatever the case may be, it was a contingency measure, you see.
The first time round, MPs voted to divert funds from debt installments owed to banks in order to finance political parties in view of the elections of May 6. The official explanation for the extra cash was «in order to secure the conditions for continuity of political parties in the national elections.»
Yes, people were outraged, but who gives a cowpat over at the IMF or the European Commission? We Συνέχεια →
Members of Parliament in Greece are continuing the farce they call austerity measures, aka cutbacks. At a time when Greeks are called upon to pay property tax for the third time (they already pay two on a bi-monthly basis) with a further three announced this year, when civil servant income has been lowered (often rightly so in some cases) and pensioners who receive €550 a month are subjected to a further decrease in a pension that will not enable them to pay rent, medication or fuel for central heating this winter, MPs seem to live in a world of their own.
Backed by fervent support from the media nationally and internationally which has given rise to the image of the Greek who refuses to fess up to tax evasion all these years and pay the price, Parliament has passed the new budget for 2012 which hardly touches MPs’ salaries. Although slight pay cuts – which were proportionately insignificant in relation to the cuts average citizens suffered – were effected in 2011, that is where things stayed for 2012. In fact, the precise state of affairs is shocking. While the world lauds the government for its efforts to restitute Greece’s image by cutting salaries, wages, pensions, subsidies and perks in a country that never had a welfare system that worked, Greeks are protesting because they know better.
Last year’s MP expense budget covered:
a) compensation: Yes, compensation as they call it, because what they are doing is a favor to all Greeks, that is why they need to be compensated rather than receive a salary like those lucky enough to hold Συνέχεια →
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