The Greek Parliament ratified by a majority vote on Thursday an amendment that allows for the restitution of judges‘ wages, as well as an additional amendment which allows for the medicinal coverage of uninsured citizens by the state’s uniform health services organization, EOPYY.
During the parliamentary discussion, the opposition parties criticized the government for not automatically including in this amendment, a wage scheme for uniformed personnel, as well as those of other groups that have been hit by the crisis.
The spokesman of the main opposition SYRIZA Party, Panagiotis Lafazanis pointed out that the austerity policy has to be rejected not only because it concerns all those who undergo its consequences, but also because it affects the economy and the country’s perspective. “You have to move politically to stop these austerity policies,” he stated.
Christos Staikouras, Alternate Finance Minister, claimed that the government is considering submitting an amendment for the back pay and future wage increases to uniformed personnel, in order to align with the Council of State ruling, as was the case with the judges. Staikouras stated that the government is trying to cover the fiscal gap in order to give back pay to the defense and security personnel, as the Council of State ruling was issued in 2014 and the necessary amount has not been included in Greece’s budget. Regarding the judiciary back pay, the government complied with the court ruling issued in 2013, thus the amounts were included in the 2014 budget, he said.
Theodoros Karaoglou, parliamentary representative New Democracy Party, noted that Greece “is exiting a painful cycle and we are in a period in which the deficits of yesterday now become surpluses and are given back to Greek citizens in the form of a social dividend.”
The parliamentary representative of coalition government PASOK, Yiannis Koutsoukos, stressed that “respect towards court decisions is an inviolable rule for us,” adding that the government must consider the total economic effect of these decisions on the state budget.
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