P. Perca: «Justice Everywhere» because they are leading the country to a galloping decline (video)

Ms Perka, MP for SYRIZA-Progressive Alliance, in response to a question on whether our country is living a nightmare, said: «I will also give you the picture from the Region, where things are tragic. We are the penultimate country in Europe in terms of per capita income. Only Bulgaria is worse than us. Products from producer to consumer have a difference of 300%. Livestock farmers, especially pastoralists, slaughter their herds and farmers stop farming. They are also not compensated because they cannot afford the accuracy of electricity. The punctuality has now gone beyond all limits.».

Then, the Member of Parliament for Florina and MEPs from the Republic of Cyprus. The MP and Deputy Minister of Environment & Energy of SYRIZA-PS developed the issues related to energy, noting: «We are champions in energy accuracy throughout 2022 and outrageous amounts throughout the holiday season. We have said it too many times. On New Year's Eve, our country had a wholesale megawatt-hour price of €283, Germany had €-1, Portugal-Spain had €3-4 and interconnected markets had €100 at most, etc. The whole market is looking - not only SYRIZA-PS and the opposition - to see what exactly has happened, what games are being played. All this is happening after the scandalous reduction of the amount of excess profits, which the government initially did not find. After our own documentation, which came from the Energy Sector of SYRIZA-PS with data from RAE and ADMIE, we found €2.2 billion for the period from July 21’ to June 22’, they came afterwards - after first depriving households and businesses of huge liquidity for more than a year - and they tell us that they found only €415 million in excess profits.

The war aggravates and intensifies this situation, which began in our country before it. It started much earlier and since August 2021 the indexation clause was applied, which was then supposedly abolished and in the end we have even higher prices. I think it is unacceptable and I stress it: we have asked for the RAE's conclusion to tell us how they calculate the €415 million in excess profits, because we believe that around €1.8 billion is a gift to the vertically integrated electricity producers. The answer that came on 29/12 from the Ministry was that there is commercial confidentiality! They tell us that the Parliament cannot be informed because there is commercial confidentiality...confidentiality as in the case of wiretapping».

In response to a question regarding the programme of SYRIZA-PS Justice Everywhere, he said: «The concept of Justice is crucial because we see an entire society attempting to become addicted to a galloping decline, an impoverishment of institutions. Of course, and Justice Everywhere. We have a specific programme, as outlined by Alexis Tsipras at the TIF.

In this energy crisis, we are the champions of price competitiveness because we don't have the energy tools with the loss of the PPC, since after its privatisation it cannot implement another policy with a social and developmental role by keeping prices down. Instead, it is currently the leader of speculation. We also propose to decouple the price of electricity from the market price of gas. We are proposing bilateral contracts in electricity, tax cuts, VAT reduction and reduction of the VAT, increase of incomes. It's all costed.’.

On the issue of ‘little Mary’, he observed: «Have you read the Der Spiegel posts? It talks about an alleged death, it talks about the parents who insist, it denounces the Greek government for not taking the necessary steps, part of the island belongs to the Greek territory. It does not say what is on the front pages in Greece. So we were saying - and the General Staff came and confirmed it - that the island belongs to the Greek territory and that the refugees must be protected. For the dead child, it was obviously a piece of information that cannot be confirmed, as Der Spiegel also notes.

They mislead public opinion and I'll bring it back into the conversation: We are expecting the taxation of €300 million from DEPA Trading, which is public, €1.8 billion in excess profits from electricity and the rest from the €2.5 billion in excess profits from the refineries and of course the €2.35 billion from the banks. It is unacceptable that the people should be impoverished and a few should accumulate surpluses.