The government is not learning. On Saturday, at the Thessaloniki International Fair, the Prime Minister spoke of tax cuts and only few hours it was perfectly clear to everyone within and beyond Greece that he clearly cannot realize.
Two days later, on Tuesday, the new draft bill for the real estate tax not only refutes the hopes of correcting the tax’s unfairness, but, it will likely expand the tax base, by resorting to distorting data on presumed assets and values, which for countless people do not reflect reality.
On the same afternoon, the new law regarding hospitals turnings everything upside own regarding “public healthcare”, which is now “officially” a thing of the past: basic diagnostic tests of preventive medicine are essentially banned (while hypocritically speaking of so-called prevention…), hospitals – starting from the small ones – are preparing to shut down, thus paving the way for their private substitutes.
On top of everything, the German Deputy Ministry of… Greek Affairs, Fuchtel, is sending to all municipalities a sort of extensive, detailed inventory form, with which he wants to be informed on scores of local government matters. By all indications, this suggests that they have set the next big business in their targets: waste management. Prior to this the German business interests had looked into the insurance system…
And the cherry on top: while Greece is suffering from Ottoman-like taxes, which aside from the dire consequences for the people do not yield any fiscal results, many serious accusations of tax violations from German companies in Greece remain unanswered…
All of this and much more – where do we start and end – highlight something that the government is clearly unable to realize: the final path to defeat.
A one-way trip that has already begun and which is increasingly getting harder and from which there is no chance of escape any more. It is a done deal…
Giorgos P. Malouchos
