Focus shifts to specifics of party programs
Fierce pre-election debate centers on economic topics like taxation, investments and dividends
Following the results of the May 21 polls, where New Democracy party secured a resounding victory, the election period leading up to the second ballot is focusing on the individual parameters of the party programs.
Party staffs, meanwhile, are on the lookout for misstatements, verbal exaggerations or signs of ignorance from their political opponents.
Thus, central tax policy options in the parties’ programs have been the focus of fierce debate over the last two days.
It started with the debate on PASOK’s program provision for a gradual increase in the taxation of distributed corporate profits and expanded with the issue of the taxation of excess profits, SYRIZA’s proposals and ND’s complaints about options that would hurt the competitiveness of the economy and the attraction of investment.
Speaking to Skai TV on Wednesday, SYRIZA spokeswoman Poppi Tsapanidou referred to the need for extraordinary taxation on excess profits of large companies. In response to a question, she said that excess profits are defined in the way the EU defined and taxed them in many countries.
She did not elaborate which corporations would be affected by the policy, just stating that the tax applies to those that have posted excessive profits.
Tsapanidou cited the 2022 balance sheets that show nearly 6 billion euros in excess earnings for the energy and refining industries.
Speaking on the same show, ND spokesperson Akis Skertsos derided the SYRIZA party program, saying it would cost 3.5 billion in taxes and create a risk of investor flight.
For his part, PASOK President Nikos Androulakis stated on Wednesday that “it is good this discussion has started,” but was quick to add that his party’s policy does not include a rise in the ENFIA property tax. He also said that two-thirds of the taxes are indirect ones, disproportionately affecting the poor and middle class, while 150 publicly traded corporations have increased their profits.
Nikos Christodoulakis, who is behind PASOK’s economic program, referred in comments to Skai about fairer taxation, regarding dividends and parental concessions and donations.
Sources from PASOK said references to taxing excess profits concern the excess profits of banks from the ECB’s interest rate policy, which created a gap between deposit rates and lending rates, and to taxing the excess profits of energy companies.
