ND leader Mitsotakis proposes reforms as antidote to econ crisis; pledges property tax cut

Main opposition New Democracy (ND) leader Kyriakos Mitsotakis on Thursday evening promised a cut to the unpopular property tax in the country by 30 percent within two years of a ND government assuming power in crisis-plagued Greece.

Mitsotakis, who appeared in a one-on-one televised prime-time interview on the Athens-based Skai television station, appeared careful to avoid campaign-style promises, given that he has repeatedly criticized the current leftist SYRIZA government for promising much while in the opposition, but implementing few of its pledges once in power.

Along those lines, the reform-minded Mitsotakis said whatever decreases in taxes will be off-set by reduced state spending.

“I will not repeat Mr. (Alexis) Tsipras’ mistake of promising to abolish the ENFIA (property) tax. I will commit to the tax being cut by 30 percent within the first two years,” the former minister said in commenting on Greek PM Tsipras' promise to abolish the tax immediately.

Mitsotakis, who was outspoken and often harshly criticized by the opposition in his push for reforms and spending cuts while holding the public administration portfolio in the previous Samaras government, dismissed the notion that he’ll pursue a policy of public sector firings once in office.

Nevertheless, he said he was adamantly opposed to past practices of the state taking on contract employees only to later transform their status to tenured employees.

In terms of economic policy, past, present and in the future, Mitsotakis emphasized:

• The need to reduce primary budget surplus targets, as demanded by institutional creditors, after 2018
• Greece would have exited the stifling framework of bailout agreements (memorandums) with creditors if Tsipras had not caused the previous government’s collapse, “why hasn’t Greece been able to exit the memorandum, whereas Portugal and Cyprus have (succeeded)”? was his rhetorical question
• Any future ND government will abolish the current regime for broadcast television licenses and return the process to an independent broadcast watchdog authority
• Promoting the continued reduction in the use of cash and promoting e-transactions

 Asked directly over the cause for the massive Greek economic implosion and the subsequent bailouts, he said he believes the chief culprit is former prime minister George Papandreou, who headed up a socialist PASOK government between 2009 and 2011, while at the same time not “pulling his punches” in reference to the previous ND government that Papandreou succeeded.

“Mr. (Costas) Karamanlis (the ND premier between 2004 and 2009) may, with some delay, have proposed a national compromise to the citizens in order to deal with the crisis, but it was Mr. Papandreou who claimed that money was available, only to find ourselves after seven months in a memorandum, for which I doubt if he (Papandreou) himself knew exactly what he signed.”

Additionally, he announced an intent to fix tax coefficients, a long-standing demand by investors and the business world that has been promised by successive Greek governments for decades, in order to attract investments and money taken out of Greek banks by depositors prior to the imposition of capital controls in late June 2015.

Referring to the increasingly acute problem of non-performing loans (NPLs) in the country, Mitsotakis said more incentives and counter-incentives need to be instituted, especially in terms of business-related NPLs.