Mass complaints to the prime minister in Thessaloniki
Mitsotakis may support the government at every opportunity as it supports citizens and businesses, but the prime minister himself became the recipient of multiple complaints during his visit to Thessaloniki and his contacts with representatives of producers and scientific bodies.
Among other things, the representatives urgently raised the important issue of reinforcement and support, with the adoption of specific and effective measures, while they also testified about their requests.
Specifically, its president Association of Greek Industries (SB) Athanasios Savvakis emphasized to the prime minister that the government should hurry to deal effectively with the energy crisis, because SBE has become the recipient of strong protests from many of its member companies, which have exceeded many limits of their tolerances, due to of increases in energy tariffs.
In this context there is no ceiling on gas and electricity prices and an industry-wide exemption from the recent EU decision to reduce natural gas consumption by 15%, as well as other measures detailed in the attached memorandum.
In any case, the SBE president said that the measures should be submitted to show that the government wants to continue to have a manufacturing base in Otherwise, it is very likely that a large number of small and medium manufacturing products will not be able to bear the costs of the excessive energy and therefore the suspension of operation of many products is increased.
Its president Chamber of Commerce of Thessaloniki Anastasios Kapnopolis emphasized that it is imperative to continue the strengthening measures as well as to take additional brave interventions until the problems are overcome.
“The situation for many small and micro-enterprises is borderline as their endurance is almost exhausted. The problem of excessive operating costs that it faces torpedoes the situation. This winter is predicted to be difficult for both households and businesses, since the mix of energy products remains at a high level. In this climate, the situation for small and medium-sized enterprises is becoming more and more suffocating. The decrease in turnover in many cases, combined with the issue of operating costs and the accumulated from the period of the ten-year crisis, as well as the pandemic, lead many businesses to a dead end”, he said.
At the same time, he raised the requests for:
- brave settlement of debts with uniform terms for tax and insurance contributions.
- institutionalization of the impounded business account
- abolition of the pretense fee
- abolition of the solidarity levy
- reduction of non-wage labor costs
- further reduction of insurance contributions
- creation of a new program to cover fixed costs, with the aim of limiting the rapid increase in energy consumption of products.
Its president Association of Exporters of Northern Greece (SEVE) Simeon Diamantidis said that he asked the prime minister how Thessaloniki will become a gateway to Europe not only for products from Saudi Arabia, but also from the United Arab Emirates, which in this year’s 86th TIF is the penalized country.
Its president Association of Hoteliers of Thessaloniki Andreas Mandrinos presented to the Prime Ministers that show that “Macedonia” airport is the only one that shows a large decrease in arrivals compared to 2019 and asked for his support at a strategic level for Thessaloniki.
Its president Federation of Professionals and Merchants of Thessaloniki (OEETH) Giorgos Moutsoyiannis submitted a memorandum with reasons such as the reduction of the excise tax on fuel, the fuel subsidy for professionals, the “freezing” of debts for the period of the coronavirus pandemic, the subsidy of professionals’ rents, the “freezing” of debts for electricity, so that electricity is not interrupted for professionals and households.
Its president Medical Association of Thessaloniki Nikos Nitsas asked for immediate incentives from the government to stop the immigration of young doctors. As he said, 20,000 doctors are working abroad at a time when the health structures of our country have huge gaps. He raised issues related to the lack of staff in Hospitals and Health Centers, requesting the recruitment of permanent staff.
He asked for the return of the doctors’ salary (ESY & EOPYY) to at least pre-crisis levels. For the personal doctor, the citizen should immediately be given the opportunity to choose between all the doctors, as, as he underlined, only contracted and public doctors are not enough.