Gradual elimination of the professional fee
The New Democracy program foresees a gradual reduction of the fee to practice a profession (known in Greek as “telos epitidevmatos”), starting from 2025, until it is eliminated in 2027, while the ruling party, if re-elected, will also reduce social security contributions.
The government’s plan calls for the fee to be reduced by 20% in 2025, a further 30% in 2026 and completely abolished in 2027.
Accordingly, contributions are planned to be reduced by half of a percentage point in 2025 and an additional 0.5% in 2027. This way the cuts are spread over time and there will be no sudden burden on the budget. It should be noted that the cost of the complete abolition of the professional fee would be 443 million euros while reducing insurance contributions by 1 percentage point would cost €509 million.
In an effort to limit fiscal costs and move within the limits expected to be set by the new European Union Stability Pact, New Democracy has presented a program of modest benefits, totaling according to its executives to just under €9.5 billion for the next four years. That would combine benefits with fiscal responsibility, ND officials claim.
Other measures announced by Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis are assessed as follows, using 2026 as the basis year: payroll increase for civil servants: €500 million; increase in pensions: €1.132 billion; increase of disability benefits by 8%: €95 million; increase of the tax-free allowance by €1,000 for families: €77 million; increase of the minimum guaranteed income by 8%: €49 million; maternity allowance: €40 million; Youth Pass: €30 million; 10% reduction in ENFIA on insured properties: €47 million; and a program for new jobs: €10 million.
SYRIZA, on the other hand, has presented a package that costs almost 10 times ND’s amount – i.e. around €83-84 billion across the full four years (€19.8-20.7 billion per year) – as the government calculates citing data from the budget and the State General Accounting Office. The president of SYRIZA and officials of the main opposition argue that they do not fall short of fiscal responsibility, dispute the calculations, and argue that the cost of the measures would be €5.6 billion an annual basis.
