The Tuesday-evening debate in Parliament over the government’s pension system reform proposal offered a first opportunity for the Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras and the main opposition leader Kyriakos Mitsotakis to butt heads.
In his speech, the Prime Minister argued that the opposition (especially New Democracy) refuse to assume their responsibilities for the non-sustainability of the pension system and has nothing to propose. PM Tsipras explained that “unless we take measures it will collapse and to pay pensions, we will need funds from the state budget that are not there”.
Later on the Prime Minister argued how the neoliberal president of New Democracy is carrying the policies of his predecessor, Antonis Samaras, which in line with the desires of the IMF. PM Tsipras questioned if the main opposition “will support the agreement with the employers [to increase their insurance contributions] or align with the IMF in the name of a pseudo-technocratic fixation that will result in new pension cuts”.
According to the PM Tsipras, the main opposition party has made no proposals regarding the pension reform and merely “aligned itself with the IMF, even ignoring the differences the Fund has with the Commission and ECB”. To this he noted that Mr. Mitsotakis is in favor of the ‘zero deficit clause’.
In response, Mr. Mitsotakis attempted to keep a low profile in his first appearance in Parliament as leader of the main opposition and accused the Prime Minister of “serial lying”. The main opposition leader attempted to criticize mistakes that his party made in the past and accused the Prime Minister of leading “the most damaging government in post-dictatorship Greece”.
During his response from the stand in Parliament, the main opposition leader appealed to the “silent majority” and warned that his party will propose the formation of an inquiry committee to investigate the actions and allegations of former Finance Minister Yanis Varoufakis.
