Party programs

New Democracy

Memorandum: Extension of fiscal adjustment period. Public spending cuts of 11.7 billion euros due 2013-14 to happen by 2016.

Unemployment: Extend unemployment benefit from one year to two. Unemployment benefit to be extended beyond salaried professionals who have lost their jobs.

Public administration: One hiring for every 10 departures in civil service. Surplus staff from public organizations that are merged will not be fired; they will receive a basic salary and social security coverage for at least three years. Exceeding privatization targets agreed in memorandum. Putting to tender concessions for the operation of regional ports and airports.

Immigration: End illegal immigration. Mass repatriation of illegal immigrants based on a common European strategy.

Taxes: Reduction of all taxes. Reduction of all VAT brackets — from 23 percent to 19 percent, from 19 percent to 9 percent and from 6.5 percent to 5 percent. Gradual reduction of highest tax bracket to 32 percent. Gradual increase of tax-free threshold to 10,000 euros.

SYRIZA

Unemployment: Increase in unemployment benefits, back to 461 euros, and the extension of the duration during which they are dispensed. The extension of unemployment benefits to self-employed professionals who have seen their businesses fold and are unable to find other work.

Public administration: Party?s ?strategic aim? is to make the public administration and the state serve social needs and the broader public good. Another priority is to crack down on corruption in public life. No layoffs in the public sector unless the cases relate to employees who have been found guilty of serious offenses. No drafting of social policy without the participation of related social groups and associations (e.g. the United Nations refugee agency in policies related to immigration).

Immigration: Plan to negotiate a new European Union framework for immigration policy with the ?proportional and fair distribution? of the burden of tackling irregular immigration across member states. The gradual granting of travel documents to the majority of immigrants who want to leave Greece for other European countries. An intensification of the crackdown on human smuggling and sex trafficking rings.

Memorandum: The oft-repeated slogan ?There is no more or less memorandum? sums up the party?s stance. The memorandum is either to be implemented or rejected, SYRIZA leader Alexis Tsipras insists. And his party rejects it. Aims to replace memorandum with a plan to ?rebuild the economy and revive society.?

Taxes: The key aim is to tax ?wealth and those on high incomes? with the aim of increasing direct taxes by 4 percent of gross domestic product to reach average EU levels through a ?radical reform of the tax system.? The creation of an assets register that would form the basis of a new tax system relieving those on low incomes and low pensions.

PASOK

Unemployment: Acceleration of completion of programs for bolstering employment so that they conclude in summer 2013 instead of end-2014. Use of funds from the National Strategic Reference Framework to combat unemployment among young people.

Public administration: Scientific valuation of services and personnel. Smaller, more efficient state and regional authorities, and meritocratic appointment system. Electronic governance, with the right of access to digital information and with each bank branch operating as a Citizens’ Service Center (KEP). Growth-focused administration. A single administrative procedure code for citizens to resolve their differences with the civil service without resorting to the courts.

Immigration: The steps taken just before the May election to tackle immigration, including the establishment of migrant reception centers, should continue with the application of the law that accelerates the provision of political asylum for those who qualify, with funds from the European Union.

Memorandum: Revision of the bailout agreement terms by retaining all positive aspects and changing all the negative ones that exacerbate the recession and unemployment. No more cuts to salaries and pensions. Drastic increase in market cash flow. Protection of collective labor contracts along European standards. More funds to combat unemployment, especially for young people.

Taxation: A national tax system that will not change for a decade. Gradual end to solidarity tax and a shift from the special property to a single progressive real estate tax. Gradual reduction of indirect taxes and value-added tax rates. Reduction of non-salary costs.

INDEPENDENT GREEKS

Memorandum: Denouncement of memorandum and loan agreements. Denouncement of Memorandum I and II. Denouncement of corresponding loan agreements and annulment of all corresponding implementation laws.

Unemployment: Modification of current unemployment benefit into two separate benefits.

Public administration: Structural reform of the public sector. Abolition of job permanence. Across-the-board salary system in the public sector.

Immigration: New immigration policy aiming at recording the number of all illegal immigrants and how to administer them. Implementation of a series of measures aimed at reversing the wave of illegal immigration.

Taxes: Redefinition of tax-free ceiling. Reduction of income tax. Reduction of income tax for companies. Abolishing corporate payment taxation. Reduction of tax on dividends. Reduction of value-added tax rates. Abolition of special property tax levied through electricity bills.

KKE

Memorandum: Scrap the EU/IMF bailout deal. The memorandum serves the interests of monopolies inside and outside Greece; it is used as an instrument to attack working-class incomes and blackmail workers. The euro-or-drachma dilemma is designed to blackmail workers into accepting more wage and pension cuts, the scrapping of collective labor agreements and more taxes.

Public administration: State-controlled services across all key areas, including energy and transport, which will be designed to meet people’s needs and be property of the people.

Immigration: Scrap the EU’s Dublin II regulations, which prevent hundreds of thousands of migrants from traveling to other countries within the bloc. Provide clandestine immigrants with travel documents. Provide asylum or alternative forms of international protection to the victims of imperialist wars and interventions, like refugees from Afghanistan, Iraq, the Palestinian Authority and Somalia. Legalize all foreign migrants who live and work in Greece. Give priority to those who have lived here for a long period of time.

Unemployment: Unemployment is not an outgrowth of Europe’s debt crisis but, rather, a constant and ?legitimate? feature of capitalism. Full employment can only be achieved outside the EU, by building a people’s economy based on socialization of the means of production, production cooperatives, and central planning of the economy. Reject plans to lay off 150,000 state sector employees.

Taxes: Raise the tax-free threshold for low-income families to 40,000 euros; allow an extra 5,000 euros for each child. Increase tax rate on big capital and the rich to 45 percent.

Chrysi Avgi (Golden Dawn)

Unemployment: Economic growth through the regeneration of national production for a self-sufficient and strong Greece. Special programs to boost agricultural production, small factories, small and medium-sized businesses, professionals and young people.

Public administration: State sector must be an engine for growth.

Immigration: Expulsion of all illegal immigrants from Greece. Land mines placed on the Greek-Turkish border to stop illegal immigrants entering the country.

Memorandum: Cancellation of Greece’s bailout deals. Erasing of any debt accumulated since 1974 that is deemed ?illegal and odious.?

Taxes: Stable tax framework. A simple but socially just tax system.

Democratic Left

Memorandum: Stop the implementation of any new austerity measures and renegotiate terms of bailout with lenders. Renegotiation should focus on six areas, including: extending fiscal adjustment period to 2017, freezing wage and pension cuts, canceling recent cut to minimum wage and change in way 14.5 billion euros will be saved in 2013 and 2014 so emphasis is on cutting waste and corruption.

Unemployment: Gradual increase in unemployment benefit.

Public administration: The country needs a new governance model at all levels. It needs to be based on productivity, transparency, consultation and accountability so public policy can be implemented based on planning, targets and results that can be measured.

Immigration: Recording of all immigrants, strengthening of citizenship process set up in 2010 and wider implementation of voluntary repatriation.

Taxes: Reform of tax system in favor of a just and progressive system for individuals and businesses.

Recreate Greece (Dimiourgia Xana)

Unemployment: More flexibility in the labor market. Keep the national labor agreement, but future bargaining will also include the unemployed who will determine the minimum wage level. Workers will be able to sign individual labor contracts with their employers. Liberalization of all professions. Reduction of social security (IKA) contributions.

Public administration: Against transferring staff to other parts of the civil service, against labor reserve scheme. In favor of a smaller, more efficient state.

Immigration: Greece has attracted more immigrants than it can handle. Greece must tighten its border controls. Supports border controls and fence along porous eastern land border with Turkey. Deportation of unregistered migrants without refugee status. Abolition of Dublin II regulations that dictate return of immigrants to point of first entry, call on EU partners to share burden. Special labor zones for immigrant workers.

Memorandum: Support for growth-inducing measures and improvement of the terms included in the bailout deal so as to bolster economic activity. Extension of Greece’s deficit goals.

Taxes: Flat income tax. Simplification of start-up procedures.