The Greek Parliament ratified the 2024 State Budget on Sunday after a five-day debate.
The 2024 budget passed 158-142 in the 300-member Parliament.
“This is the first budget after 14 years with Greece having acquired the investment grade credit rating,” Prime Minister, Kyriakos Mitsotakis, said and added: “It marks a milestone as this upgrade has been a national goal, a promise I made a year ago. And we did it with the help of a program based on trust.
He pointed out that trust brings trust. “Trust between countries but also trust between the state and citizens, as demonstrated by the last elections,” he said referring to the figures that prove the efficiency of the economic policy.
President of SYRIZA-Progressive Alliance’s parliamentary group, Sokratis Famellos, spoke of a “great effort” on the part of the ministers and MPs of the ruling New Democracy party “to convince the citizens that the country is living a unique era of prosperity.”
“This effort is obviously carefully planned, but it is in complete contrast to what the citizens experience,” he explained.
On his part, PASOK-Movement for Change leader Nikos Androulakis’ criticism against the government’s policy was rather strong.
“Your policies offer a low quality of life for the great majority of the Greek people in a country with low-paying jobs and very expensive daily life,” he stated.
“The budget tabled by the government expresses the interests of the capital at the expense of the people’s needs. It is unfair, anti-popular and that is the reason why we are voting against it,” the general secretary of the KKE parliamentary committee, Dimitris Koutsoubas, said.
