Harakopoulos at the ND conference: Autonomous Greece with motivation and greater for young people
“Independent Greece serves through the young men and women, who are the future of this place. “Supporting young people, motivation to start a family and tackling the demographic problem must be included in the modern Great Idea of the Nation”, stressed in his speech at the 14th Congress of New Democracy, the Larissa MP. Maximos Harakopouloswho started by saying that “for the sake of time I will avoid referring to the justification of the ideology of ND, after all, our previous companions and our former political opponents did it very well”.
The politician from Thessaly underlined that he chose to speak in the thematic section “Policies for young people” because, as he said, “I believe that this generation of crisis is the most unjust in history. For the first time since World War II, it is not self-evident that children have a better standard of living than their parents. This alone is enough to understand why the new generation does not come from politics – not to mention turn its back on politics.
It is the generation that for 12 years has been living more intensely one crisis after another. The bankruptcy of the country opened thousands of qualified children, children whose homeland is education, to look for work, to work abroad. And the “pawn” came the pandemic, which stopped the rapid recovery of the economy brought about by the change of policy after the fall of SYRIZA and the takeover of the government by ND.
They are the generation that in the years of crisis and rising unemployment was called to work part-time and with wages many times lower than the pensions received by their grandparents.
In the recent research of diANEOsis on “what young people think”, the biggest problems are unemployment, low wages, lack of opportunities. But what future can an aging society have, with 1/3 of its population retired, and a significant portion of its young expatriates? “How will these children return and especially how young people, who feel insecure, will start a family in a country that is collapsing demographically?”
Measures of the Mitsotakis government
The government MP underlined that “undoubtedly, the Mitsotakis government, despite the great adversities, took important measures in the direction of reducing unemployment, stopping the brain drain, supporting the family. Tax burdens and insurance contributions were reduced, there was a brave increase in the minimum wage and, above all, the investment climate changed with the attraction of foreign investment, which offers well-paid positions. At the same time, there were measures to support the births – with a more emblematic allowance of 2,000 euros for each new child “.
The school “passport” for better public life
Maximos Harakopoulos argued that “the reorientation of higher education is not unrelated to the work of interventions in education, so that universities do not produce unemployed graduates.
The effort to upgrade education, from the two-year pre-school education with the introduction of English in kindergartens to the expansion of Model and Experimental schools as islands of excellence, is undoubtedly commendable. Of course, until today we have not received an answer why in Larissa, the capital of Thessaly, the fifth most populous country in the country, there has been no Model School!
Upgrading public education is a major goal. The children of the rich may have the opportunity to go to college. “But for the children of the people, public schools are their ‘passport’ to a better life.”
Housing policy for young couples
The ruling party official acknowledged that “a lot has been done. But we all realize that it is not enough to support young people, to make a fresh start in their lives, to start a family. Because in addition to job insecurity, in recent years, housing has also turned into a hoax, as prices in both markets and rentals have skyrocketed. For the rent of a house, 40% of the employee’s salary is needed! That is why we are looking forward to the announcements for a comprehensive housing policy for young couples “.