The recent announcement that motoring fines in Cyprus are to increase by as much 500% are no less than extortion by a government desperate to raise money to cover up its failures at the expense of ordinary citizens.
I am a strong believer in Rule of Law and I do believe that the law of the land should be respected but likewise; I believe that the law must also be a fair law and not be used to serve political agendas. I do however detest authorities attempting to drain every penny out of people’s hard earned cash.
Such is the case with this new motoring proposal; it aims to drain every bit of cash out of poor citizens pockets with exorbitant fines and imprisonment. The rich can afford to pay high penalties to avoid incarceration but when a fine represents one or two week’s wages for a poor worker that cannot be right. Yet, the current proposal will not stop bad drivers – there will always be idiots – but it will hit the unemployed and the poor the hardest in a ruined economy.
Society is not full of pious angels and anyone can make a mistake but from an 85 Euro fine for not wearing a seat belt to a sudden increase of 200 Euros, is not only unfair but also obscene. Such crippling fines if not paid in time can rise to 500 Euros and send the offender to prison! That’s not only a bad law but also one that for sure would lock hundreds of people behind bars.
Then I ask a sane person – is such a law fair? Is it fair when a father, a son or a daughter or someone’s mother ends up in prison for not having the money to pay a massive fine for a driving offense? That’s an archaic medieval law and has no place in a civilized modern EU society – but only in Cyprus!
The government’s proposal is utterly unjust and I hope it’s rejected big time – that’s if the parliamentarians are listening and decide to do the right thing! Reject this madness!
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