More Than 225,000 Greeks Scurry For Social Dividend

 

Greek Prime Minister Antonis Samaras’ pre-election cash giveaway has prompted hundreds of thousands of people to apply for the so-called “social dividend,” much of will be given to low-income pensioners along with the military and emergency personnel that make up a core constituency of his New Democracy Conservative party.
The money will come from a primary surplus that could be as high a 2.5 billion euros, not including interest on debt, the cost of running cities and towns, social security, and some military expenditures.
Facing a tough test in next month’s elections for municipalities as well as the European Parliament from the major opposition Coalition of the Radical Left (SYRIZA), Samaras is planning to distribute 70- percent of the surplus to groups affected by austerity measures he imposed on the orders of international lenders, but not all of them.
He has to wait for the European Union’s statistics agency Eurostat to certify the amount before he can proceed but said he wants to get the money in voter’s hands by May 10, just ahead of the crucial May 18 and May 25 elections.
By April 22, some 225,000 people had already applied, the British newspaper The Guardian reported, showing the level of desperation in a populace decimated by big pay cuts, tax hikes, slashed pensions and worker firings ordered by the Troika of the European Union-International Monetary Fund-European Central Bank (EU-IMF-ECB) in return for 240 billion euros ($330.7 billion) in two bailouts.
Samaras has promised a 500 euro bonus to the pensioners, military and cops but it hasn’t been announced how the money will be distributed among the applicants Critics said the dividend is an attempt to buy votes with polls showing SYRIZA has a slight lead in most surveys.
The Leftists said Samaras is taking money away from paying state suppliers to give to austerity victims in what it described as a transparent attempt to buy the elections.
Samaras said he’s just trying to ease the effects of austerity he imposed after opposing the measures when he was out of office. “We must help those most affected by the crisis, in order to give them a second chance,” he said.
“Our goal is to exit the crisis without leaving anyone behind,” he said aarlier this month in talking about the dividend when Greece was floating its first sovereign bond since the crisis began four years ago.
SYRIZA said the surplus had been achieved with a surplus of unemployed and poverty stricken Greeks. Government spokesman Simos Kedigoglou hit back at SYRIZA and its leader Alexis Tsipras.
“They bet on a catastrophe which never came and now they are distressed by the ever growing signs of exit from the crisis,” he said in a statement.

SYRIZA said that the so-called “mobility scheme” which is being used to fire workers would go on until next year.  The Troika has demanded that 25,000 public sector workers go through the scheme by the end of this year.

“Not only is the country not coming out of the memorandum, it is entering further into it,” the leftists said.

SYRIZA claimed in its statement that the new memorandum of understanding between Greece and its lenders would lead to further job losses and wage cuts in the civil service.

“The celebrations about the primary, pre-election surplus… cannot hide the future that Mr Samaras and Mrs [Angela] Merkel have in store for the Greek people,” the opposition party said in reference to the German Chancellor who insisted on austerity in return for backing the bailouts.