Electoral Handouts

It is no coincidence that Portugal borrows with much lower interest rates than Greece, as the yield on ten-year bonds demonstrates.

The cost of the package of measures announced by the PM is between 1.1 and 1.4 percent of GDP annually, which could exceed five billion euros over two years.

Over-taxation was a conscious choice of the government, which aimed to collect funds for electoral handouts at the end of its term.

With PM Alexis Tsipras donning the cloak of protector of the poor and punisher of the elite, promises, handouts, and divisive tactics are the order of the day.

The government fell as low as to try just a few days before elections to fool a segment of society that deserves the utmost respect – senior citizens.

After the electoral benefit, which the government dubbed “13th [monthly] pension", it handed out an extraordinary benefit to prison guards, employees of auditing organs, and coroners.

This government pledged much that it did not do and did much that it had not told us about. Still, one cannot but note its obsession with the sterile policy of benefits and pledges to everyone, with zero results.

Greece is perhaps the only European country where political life literally paralyses before an election. The state lacks continuity and is managed in piecemeal fashion. The state machine freezes with a view to the upcoming political transition.

Will the government be prudent in handing out benefits or will it open the state coffers and along with them a Pandora’s Box?

'One-off stipends are being disbursed to more and more groups of beneficiaries, which are arbitrarily determined when [super] primary surpluses are reached.'