Errors
«Blunder» may be a word the prime minister does not like but of late, Costas Simitis and his Socialist government have committed a series of blunders which, unfortunately, harm the country more than they harm his party. Such errors are to be seen in many crucial sectors. The latest example is the reaction to the experts’ proposals on tax reform. Senior government officials – with the prime minister’s consent – dismissed the proposals before they were even discussed. In truth, however, the committee’s proposals were in line with Simitis’s logic. Perhaps they lacked the radicalism that would boost growth, but they could have helped modernize a tax system which cannot live up to the demands of a new era. A few days earlier, an overly mild reform of the social security system had doomed all efforts to achieve convergence with EU standards. The Labor Ministry is now reconsidering Tassos Yiannitsis’s law on labor reform, which sparked an uproar among Socialist unionists. Privatization has ground to a halt, business activity has dropped off, the stock market is in the doldrums, the budget is under serious strain and workers, led by the civil servants, are demanding extra bonuses and benefits while the government is unable to transform the climate. Adding to this PASOK General Secretary Costas Laliotis’s polarizing tactics and his reactionary overture to left-wing parties, we get the complete picture of the government’s erroneous moves…
