Greek government spokesperson Pavlos Marinakis accused former prime minister Alexis Tsipras of committing "political scams," saying the spending pledges Tsipras announced in his speech at the Thessaloniki International Fair do not match the costing his own party later handed to reporters.
Marinakis said many of the former prime minister's commitments were either pushed back in time or quietly shrunk once they appeared in the costed policy document distributed to journalists. He singled out pledges on a "patriotic contribution," 50,000 new homes, pay rises for doctors, nurses and teachers, and monthly support for university students, saying what was said from the podium did not match what ended up in the fine print of the measures.
Marinakis is the Deputy Minister to the Prime Minister and Government Spokesperson under Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis. Tsipras, who served as Greece's prime minister from 2015 to 2019, now leads the Greek Left Coalition, known by its Greek initials ELAS. The Thessaloniki International Fair, held every September, is Greece's traditional stage for major political speeches ahead of the autumn parliamentary session.
Fiscal Program 2027-2030
Marinakis said ELAS's press office had issued an aggressive and sarcastic statement a day earlier, in what he described as an attempt to contain panic after party officials made a series of comments trying to justify the scale of Tsipras's spending promises. He pointed to what he called strange explanations offered for the "patriotic contribution" and a "global database," as well as a reversal on the 50,000 homes, which he said switched within less than a day from being described as newly built, as Tsipras stated in his speech, to renovated. He said the low point among the party's missteps was an announcement of a coming "raid" on citizens' bank safe deposit boxes.
Marinakis said a document titled "Fiscal Program 2027-2030," which the party circulated to journalists, exposed the gap between what Tsipras said and what his party actually costed, which he argued turned the former prime minister's promises into political scams.
Teacher hiring and pensioner costs
Marinakis listed several examples comparing Tsipras's speech with the party's own figures:
- Tsipras said his party would back schools by hiring 30,000 teachers, but the party document shows no permanent teacher hiring at all for 2027 or 2028, with only half the promise shifted to 2029.
- Tsipras said pensioners would immediately stop paying anything toward medicines, with zero out-of-pocket cost, but the document again shows only half the measure delayed to 2029, meaning Marinakis said the promised "immediate" change would not arrive until then.
Corporate tax and health pay rises
- Tsipras pledged to cut the advance tax payment for companies, but the document shows no reduction at all before 2029, with the measure pushed to 2030 at a cost of 400 million euros, corresponding to a cut of just 5%.
- Tsipras promised an initial average pay rise of 500 euros a month for doctors and nurses. The party document lists an annual cost of 900 million euros but divides that figure by four, into installments of 225 million euros a year. Marinakis said that amount corresponds to a real rise of only 125 euros, meaning the annual cost of the measure had effectively been divided by four.
Teacher pay and student support
- Tsipras promised teachers an initial pay rise of 300 euros a month, but the document allocates 210 million euros a year instead of the 840 million euros needed, which Marinakis said works out to a rise of just 75 euros.
- Tsipras promised monthly support of 500 euros for 80,000 students, but the document divides an annual cost of 400 million euros by four, into 100 million euros a year, which Marinakis said equates to 125 euros a month rather than 500.
- Marinakis said the costing includes no funding at all for the 50,000 homes or for pledges made to municipalities, calling them announcements with no financial backing.
Government response
Marinakis said this was Tsipras's new method of misleading the public, saying one thing in his speech while his staff sent journalists something different, and that it remained to be seen what else would emerge in the coming days or weeks.
He said the government did not believe that simply exposing its opponent's contradictions was enough on its own, saying society's expectations were higher than that and that the government needed hard work and more results. He added that the harder the times, the more serious and costed solutions were needed, saying these would be presented on Saturday when Mitsotakis opens the Thessaloniki International Fair.
