OK, AKEL is a left-wing party. As such, it’s expected to pursue wealth taxation to support the middle and working classes. This philosophy underpins their proposal submitted to Parliament for imposing an extraordinary levy on excess bank profits – the same proposal that caused chaos in last Thursday’s plenary session.
Fair enough, DISY, DIKO, DEPA and Christodoulides belong to the right wing of politics. However, their displayed passion and unreasonable scaremongering exceeded all expected bounds. What they didn’t anticipate was being irreparably exposed by the equally right-wing Mitsotakis.
The chap had the nerve to announce a package of measures for banks aimed at protecting consumers. Let’s examine them in detail:
All charges for basic banking transactions are being eliminated (payments to government, insurance funds, councils, energy companies, water and telecommunications providers).
A cap is being set at €0.50 for money transfers up to €5,000 per transaction.
Property tax (ENFIA) will double from 2026 on properties managed by banks and servicers. The aim is to release approximately 25,000 homes back into the market, helping to reduce rental prices.
Previous restrictions on Credit Provider Companies are being lifted to increase loan availability.
€100 million is being transferred from the financial system for either renovating existing school buildings or constructing new ones under the “Marietta Giannakou” Programme.
An additional €100 million from banks will go towards establishing a Property Acquisition and Leasing Agency.
The daily transaction limit in the IRIS System is being increased to €1,000, and charges for loading prepaid cards up to €100 are being eliminated.
Citizens will be able to compare all available deposit and credit interest rates, as well as all fees, on the Bank of Greece website.
Now, someone needs to explain to Christodoulides, Annita, Nicolas and the others – who competed to show maximum opposition to AKEL’s proposal – how on earth they were outflanked on the left by the right-wing Kyriakos Mitsotakis. And how Mitsotakis dared to do such a thing, disregarding the risk of “driving the country onto the rocks again”, as Nicolas dramatically claimed in Parliament. Or at least how he could make such a proposal with its “dangerous approach”, as Christodoulides more mildly put it.
Obviously, Mitsotakis hasn’t taken action that will drive Greece onto the rocks. Obviously, AKEL’s proposal, had it passed, wouldn’t have had such consequences either. It’s rather laughable to think that a levy yielding €100 million over two years from banks’ €2.5 billion profits would be devastating. Obviously, the right-wing politicians are greatly exaggerating.
What should be noted first and foremost is the small but significant difference between Mitsotakis’s proposal and AKEL’s proposal. The Greek Prime Minister’s measures provide support and relief directly to consumers. Meanwhile, AKEL’s proposal would have boosted state coffers, without any guarantee that the €100 million would be used by the Government to support the poor and middle class.
If Christodoulides and these parties truly care about supporting poor and middle-class citizens, they should work together to find measures that reasonably utilise banks’ excess profits to support consumers directly. All this nonsense about economic shipwreck helps no one!
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