Parliament: Today the roll-call vote on LARCO

Today, Wednesday, the amendment on LARCO is put to a roll call vote. A request for a roll-call vote has been submitted by SYRIZA and KKE. The plenary session on the bill on the reform of the framework for the operation of the Financial Stability Fund began at 12 noon on Tuesday and ended shortly before 1 a.m. on Wednesday. The focus was on the amendment on LARCO.

Closing the debate, Finance Minister Christos Staikouras referred to LARCO, noting that in the last 10 years, 53 million were given from the state budget by the current government alone. «You have not given a single euro to LARCO. You just increased the debts. You paid the workers and you owed money everywhere,» the finance minister said, addressing the opposition benches, referring to the financial data on LARCO over the last 10 years. Close to this, Staikouras recalled that the country was accused of potential illegal state aid, from 2014 onwards. They were aid, he said, related to

the non-recovery of debts owed by LARCO to the Greek State,

-the granting of a state guarantee by the state to cover a loan from the Agricultural Bank in 2008,

-the participation of the Greek State in the share capital increase in 2009,

-the granting of a guarantee by the State to cover a letter of guarantee issued by the National Bank of Greece to LARCO in 2010

-non-collection of a tax fine in 2010

-Granting of state guarantees by the Greek State to cover two loans from ATE to LARCO in 2011.

«These were the six measures on which the European Commission relied to find that they were potentially illegal state aid. The state, and successive governments, came and tried to convince the European Commission that they are not illegal state aid,» the finance minister said, accusing the SYRIZA government of doing nothing to meet the timetables that had been set for the period from 2014 onwards for the required corrective measures.

Mr.Staikouras also referred to the letter of Euclid Tsakalotos, dated 28.3.2019, in which he stated that the Greek government is open to work effectively with the European Commission in order to find a solution in accordance with European law. The Finance Minister pointed out that, in that letter, Tsakalotos stated that several potential investors have already informally expressed their interest, for the whole company or for some of its assets, as confirmation of the company's potential to return to profitability.

During his closing intervention, Mr.Staikouras responded on the cost of borrowing. «It would be irresponsible, from any political leadership of a finance ministry, to say that it is not an element of concern, the increase in borrowing costs. It is a global phenomenon, it is a pan-European phenomenon, the borrowing costs of all countries are rising. This proves and confirms the need to implement a farsighted editorial strategy - I want to personally thank the Director General of the ODIHR - and a prudent fiscal policy,» he said, adding that «today, borrowing costs are a response to those who said ’how much the country borrowed‘ and it is also a response to those who irresponsibly follow the logic of ’give it all«. ‘The country will run a deficit this year. You are suggesting that some people here are suggesting that the deficit should increase, that is, you are suggesting that the country should go and borrow at the same time that you are saying that the cost of borrowing has increased. So in effect we are increasing the cost, we are increasing the interest, we are mortgaging the future of the country and our children. We are not going to do that. We will continue to be responsible, realistic, close to society, next to society, building a safety net to protect households and businesses by spending more resources than the European average and we will leave the opposition to its illusions,» the Finance Minister said.

The parties

«The amendment on LARCO was tabled on time. It is one of the cases in which the Rules were followed to the letter,» said the rapporteur of the Southwestern Party, Yiannis Kefalogiannis, and commented: «while we have seen that there were long hours of discussions in the four meetings of the Finance Committee, as we have exceeded twelve hours of sitting today, eleven hours of which were devoted to the issue of LARCO. And I mention this because it actually implies one thing. That is, that all the other provisions of the bill, as was at least apparent both in the committees and during the debate of the bodies, but also in the plenary, apparently received the tacit approval of at least the majority of the wings of the House.

«We expected to see a lot from New Democracy on the issue of LARCO. But we did not expect the same day on which you would vote and fight so much for the bankers» bonuses, the same day that you would bring the dismissal of all the company's employees." the rapporteur of SYRIZA Ioannis Sarakiotis. The MP also responded to those who blame the government of SYRIZA for the situation in which LARCO found itself. «For LARCO, because we have heard from colleagues from other regions who do not know the issue, that SYRIZA bankrupted LARCO. Balance sheet of 2008: 116 million losses of LARCO. SYRIZA was probably not in power in 2008. 2009 balance sheet: losses, only EUR 105 million. SYRIZA was not governing then either, as far as I remember. 2012 balance sheet: losses, just 34 million. Balance sheet of 2013: losses, just EUR 76 million for LARCO. Balance sheet of 2014: EUR 28 million. Otherwise, SYRIZA is responsible for the bankruptcy of LARCO,’ Sarakiotis said. »I heard colleagues from the New Democracy from other regions praising and glorifying the rescue of LARCO. I think the answer was given by the New Democracy MPs from Fthiotida, from Evia, from Livadia, that no one showed up here today to defend this terrible project. They probably do not know. Probably they have gone to their regions and celebrate there with the workers of the company«, also commented the rapporteur of SYRIZA.

Η special rapporteur of PASOK-KINAL Tonia Antoniou said that «New Democracy is in effect putting a definitive lock on LARCO with the dismissal of its employees by the special administrator. In other words, it puts a lock on a company that was operating and producing during the era of the memoranda. And during the election period, the special administrator will recruit, on monthly or bi-monthly contracts, the people New Democracy likes». It is clear, continued Tonya Antoniou, that «Maximou S.A. is the dealer of the big interests, the interests that will buy the shares of the banks held by the Hellenic Financial Stability Fund, the interests that will speculate on the assets of LARCO, the shareholders of ELLINAIR, a company without any more flight operations, for which the granting of financial support is established, as in the case of the corresponding aid to AEGEAN, without serious clauses and rights for the State, as was the case with similar aid in other European countries and without any serious documentation to inform Parliament of the reasonableness of the amount of the aid.

Ο special rapporteur of the KKE Manolis Syntyxakis stressed that while there is a demand from all workers, all trade unions, to withdraw the «amendment of the disgrace» for LARCO, the government with «unprecedented cynicism» condemns hundreds of workers to annihilation. «You are truly ruthless. It cannot be otherwise explained after what you have heard, with the arguments we have presented in this Chamber, based on the struggles that the workers themselves have made, which proves that you want to serve big capital by fire and iron at the expense of real development in the interests of the people. We are afraid that the fate of LARCO will be shared by other companies», said Manolis Syntycheakis.

Ο special rapporteur of MP25 Kriton Arsenis «On 21-3-2022, workers» injunctions against the dismissals, order of the Court of First Instance in favour of the injunctions. On 31-3-2022, Special Management, which you appointed, makes application for injunctive relief, court rejects it. On 5-5-2022 and 6-5-2022 we have the hearing of the injunction, where again a motion for a continuance is made by the Special Management. What is the outcome? It is granted because Special Management says they will come to negotiate with the employees, which is not happening, and you bring in this amendment before the new date, the 17th, that essentially fires the employees. So you went to the courts, you told them «give us time, please, don't hear the decision, don't take the decision on the injunction, on the process of freezing the layoffs, we'll sit down and have a dialogue with the workers« and you brought an amendment before the court decision came out,» the special rapporteur of MERA25 said and added: »At the same time that you are quite openly giving 10 million to ELLINAIR, you are giving 80% less tax on direct transfers to «Hellenic«, which now from a big project becomes Real Estate, selling plots of land and so on, i.e. on services to the big guys a well everything obviously. Only when you lay off a thousand workers, the procedures are done by bypassing all legal channels, mocking justice again and again. We call on you, even at this moment, to withdraw your amendment. Let the matter be heard in the courts! Why do you not do so?».

Deputy Minister of Finance Apostolos Vessyropoulos referred to the tax provisions included in the bill for the reform of the role of the HFSF. «A few days ago, we proceeded with the introduction and activation of generous tax incentives for the development of businesses through partnerships and corporate transformations. We are proving once again that the policy of tax incentives has continuity, since the regulation that is coming up for vote in the bill we are discussing today provides for the granting of an increased deduction for expenses related to the «green» economy, energy and digital transformation for businesses,» said the Deputy Minister of Finance, adding that with this provision «the deduction for business expenses related to the «green» economy, energy and digitalization is essentially increased by 100%.».

At the same time, Mr. Vessiropoulos referred to the provision that determines a special way of determining the value of transferred properties located in areas where the process of integration into the system of objective determination of property value has begun. «When a property is transferred in an area where a decision has been issued to commission certified valuers to prepare a recommendation for the determination of starting prices, then the tax will be calculated based on the value declared by the taxpayer and the citizen has the obligation within three months of the publication of the ministerial decision on objective values to submit a new declaration based on these values. In this way, taxpayers who acquire properties, which in a short period of time are to be included in the objective assessment system, are given the opportunity to be taxed on the basis of a rational and realistic framework based on equal treatment,» the Deputy Minister of Finance said.