PASOK MPs ask to discuss taxes with Stournaras
PASOK MPs on Tuesday asked for a meeting with Finance Minister Yannis Stournaras and general secretary for revenues Haris Theocharis amid concerns within the government that complaints about tax issues are damaging the coalition’s popularity.
Farmers are protesting new tax regulations, including the need for them to keep books, but there are also concerns in the government about the impact of other tax-related issues, such as a proposed capital gains tax on property.
These concerns have been a recurring theme during recent meetings between Prime Minister Antonis Samaras and Deputy Prime Minister Evangelos Venizelos. Samaras told New Democracy’s parliamentary group last week that there would be adjustments to iron out “mistakes and injustices.”
Venizelos was in Strasbourg on Tuesday and met with Hannes Swoboda, leader of the Progressive Alliance of Socialists and Democrats in the European Parliament, and Martin Schulz, the parliament’s president who is hoping to become the head of the European Commission. They discussed the possibility of Schulz visiting Greece in early March and attending a joint congress that PASOK will hold with the fellow center-left Movement of the 58, with whom the Socialists will stand in May’s European Parliament elections.
