For the past couple months the government has been focused on the television licenses and the so-called fight against corruption, setting aside all of the country’s major problems. You see in SYRIZA’s mind, if there is one, public relations and populist come first. That is how we reached fall and almost all issues remain open and the review, once again, is up in the air.
While they were declaring that this time the review would be a piece of cake, since the loose ends weren’t that great, it turns out that of the 16 prior actions they agreed to complete by September only two have been implemented. As a result the Europeans have raised the alarm and we are informed through the grapevine that the next tranche will not be paid out at the Eurogroup, but rather it has been postponed for the next month.
Of course nobody knows what will happen with the second and more important review, from which we were to collect an additional 6.5 billion euros. This is a sum we absolutely need, since revenue is not doing that well, businesses and taxpayers appear to have reached their tax-paying limits and as a result the uncollected debts towards the State and funds has exceeded 7.5 billion euros since the start of the year.
With a slew of direct taxes ahead of us until the end of the year and a series of indirect taxes of fuel, tobacco and telecommunications, it is clear that public finances will be worse off at the end of the year. And yet rather than focus on the unresolved issues and close the review as soon as possible, the government insists upon its usual tactics of fooling society.
The economy and businesses are faltering, the people are under pressure and yet the government’s top priority is to control communication. Unfortunately for Mr. Tsipras and his ministers the people are fed up with the fake promises. No matter how many stories they come up, twist reality and control the media, they have lost – once and for all – the trust of even their voters.
TO VIMA
