Brussels barometer decisions on possible additional government intervention

Of Dimitris Gatsiou

The next cycle of challenges that open on the horizon of the government marks the current return of the prime minister to the Maximos Palace.

The European Summit, scheduled to meet next Thursday and Friday in Brussels, is called upon to make crucial decisions on financial support for consumers and businesses in the face of the rising walls of the energy crisis.

And the signal of the “27” leaders, at the end of the work of the Summit, is expected with particular interest from Athens, as it will determine, to a large extent, possible new moves, which will be added to the 1 protection net of 1.1 billion , announced in the middle of last week.

“The demands and needs of the people of Europe are common to all… The consequences on the lives of citizens of energy and consumer goods are so severe that no single country can meet them…

“It must be a priority for the European Union to intervene mainly in the energy sector… Here we are it is clear that a brave European initiative is needed…”, note government officials, four twenty-four hours before the “27” meeting in the Belgian capital.

Athens has already built its alliances with the capitals of the European South, Kyriakos Mitsotakis, Mario Draghi, Pedro Sanchez and Antonio Costa reflected their common pace, while the proposal of the Greek Prime Minister, which came to the forefront at the extraordinary Versailles Summit and is in the toolbox examined by the Commission, with the support of France, Italy, Spain and Belgium.

“It is obvious that no country can face the crisis alone. National initiatives are certainly part of the solution, but they are not enough,” is the message conveyed by the Greek capital, with its eyes on the Summit.

Following the Prime Minister’s proposals, a central view of the government, heading to Brussels, is that European initiatives against speculative trends are needed, not only to protect the social fabric from the effects of energy price increases, but also because the energy crisis can bring back the nightmare of populism in Europe.

The demand, then, in the first phase is to have harmonized European policy interventions against speculative trends, in order to restore the balance between the prices of gas and electricity. In this context, the main axes that Kyriakos Mitsotakis is expected to support in the two-day meeting of the “27” are:

-Most renewable energy sources.

-The differentiation in terms of gas supply sources, with more LNG.

– The emphasis on the interconnections of the Iberian Peninsula with France, Greece with Italy, as well as the investment in the interconnections of Europe with the African continent.

– Investing in savings “as the cheapest energy is the one we never consume”.

Seeking further antidotes to the strong pressures on household and business budgets, the government, at the same time, has as a priority the consolidation of a climate of economic and political stability.

In this context, associates of the Prime Minister insist on excluding from the scope of any possibility of calling elections. “Every ballot box discussion is out of place and out of time.

“The debate is cut here and there is no such issue, as it creates a climate of instability, at a time when the country needs stability and needs leadership,” they said. Capital.gr.

They remind that the Prime Minister has never, neither in public nor in his private debates, left such a possibility open, clarifying many times that ballot boxes will be set up at the end of the four years. In this direction, came the response of the government representative to the president of SYRIZA.

“Our government has been handling, for almost three years, successive external and international crises, to which it responds with actions and guided by both the security and stability of society and the defense of national interests.

At the end of the four years, with these data, the citizens will compare and decide… Mr. Tsipras confirms that he lags behind the circumstances and the international data of the 21st century…

In the most tense international environment after the Second World War, his proposals (without costing again) will bring society back to the era of memoranda, so that it can regain its lost political role.

“The culmination of his policy of insanity is the demand for elections in a historical context in which stability and security are required,” Oikonomou said.