In Greece heavy taxation is equated with tricks by Authority that reek of lawlessness.
The game is open. Let us take an example: a stroll in an airplane reveals that the entire country is full of various buildings: villas in burned down forests, coast-side shacks that will later be converted into resorts…
All of these are almost always privately-owned buildings that emerged out of nothing during the election campaign periods. When the State does nothing, it turns a blind eye to illegal dwellings.
There are many illegal actions that offset the plundering of public land with taxes. Of course, there are also the official gifts to the people – the provisional financial benefits.
Miracles, however, take three days. Before the rooster crows, the moment of truth will come. There are three steps to handing out benefits.
· “Tsovola give it all”, that Andreas Papandreou argued twenty years and lost the elections
· This tactic was adopted by Antonis Samaras and he too lost the elections in 2015.
· Now we are approaching the third step…
The SYRIZA government claims that the recent proclamations, with the rudimentary benefits for the country’s poor, are not election campaign promises.
The cherry on top of these benefits, whether it is a election campaign pledge or not, is suspending the VAT hike on the north Aegean islands.
More to come… before the elections!
Stavros P. Psycharis
Originally published in the Sunday print edition
