Main opposition New Democracy (ND) president Kyriakos Mitsotakis on Tuesday emphasized that if elected prime minister his government will proceed with tax cuts for businesses and self-employed professionals without the prior approval of institutional creditors.
Mitsotakis, a former minister, spoke on the occasion of the one-year anniversary of his internal party election victory to assume the helm of center-right ND.
Speaking live on a local television station's prime-time newscast, Mitsotakis directly referred to a "unilateral reduction" of tax rates.
"It's not possible for 80 percent of a self-employed professional's income to end up with the state," he said, repeating his party's leitmotif of reducing tax rates across the board, particularly the corporate rate.
Nevertheless, he expressed confidence that creditors' will approve ND's plan, which will include specific spending cuts.
Asked on touch on a sensitive issue that often haunts the pro-reform Mitsotakis, namely, possible redundancies in the public sector, the ND president and son of former premier Constantine Mitsotakis said spending cuts do not translate into firings -- while excluding illegal hirings of contract workers.
Besides economic issues, which dominate the party's policy planks, Mitsotakis promised that a ND government will build and operate at least one high-security prison, charging that the current leftist government abolished higher security wings at current penitentiaries.
Finally, he charged that the current government and relevant minister have miserably failed to deal with the refugee issue.
