Editorial Ta Nea: Circumstances

An agreement does not produce the same results for everyone. Some benefit from its terms and others are harmed.

It remains to be seen who will be the winners and losers from the FYROM naming agreement – if and when it is implemented.

Already there is one beneficiary. Even as the discussion was focused on the FYROM issue, the government passed the worst medium-term fiscal programme that the country has ever seen.

With the passing of the omnibus bill by parliament, Greek citizens are being saddled with what is essentially a fourth bailout memorandum, but without money this time.

For the first time in the nearly ten years of crisis, low income bracket pensioners will suffer pension cuts, and the have nots will see the tax-free threshold reduced.

All of this is happening at a time that there is no indication that in the coming period the government’s fervent desire for debt relief will be satisfied.

It would be politically inappropriate to use the agreement with FYROM as a smokescreen, in order to pass the medium-term programme almost unnoticed.

Citizens have the right to know what awaits them, and the additional cost that they will be forced to pay, when the current bailout ends and the country enters an era of strict supervision.

The government benefited from the circumstances, but it cannot benefit at the expense of citizens.