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Victoria Mindova

A referendum in support or against the continuation of reforms suggested the chairman of the Hellenic Federation of Enterprises Dimitris Daskalopoulos. In his opinion Greece should take responsibility for its actions and should convince Europe and the markets that their money and their efforts would not be made in vain only in this way. Daskalopoulos believes that it is useless to seek political consensus today. It had to be agreed yet in May 2010 when the Memorandum of financial support was announced.

"Given that the political system is not able to respond to this crisis then the people’s vote is needed to continue the implementation of the necessary changes. And it is not about elections, but about a referendum, which will hear the people," said Daskalopoulos to the political and business elite of Greece. The Prime Minister George Papandreou, the Minister of Finance Georgios Papakonstantinou, the President of the Bank of Greece Georgios Provopoulos, the CEO of Eurobank Dimitris Nanopoulos, Vassilis Rapanos from the National Bank of Greece were in the audience.

Dimitris Daskalopoulos stated that the referendum is needed to teach the Greeks that they are directly linked and responsible for the decisions the state should take today. In this sense, every citizen would take his responsibility for the implementation of the upcoming more stringent measures for fiscal consolidation and structural changes, so that to achieve the objective of reducing the budget deficit and recovering the local economy at the end of the program. If these measures are not adopted, Greece would be at risk to leave the eurozone because this would be the logical step after the bankruptcy is declared.
 
The chairman of the Athens Chamber of Commerce and Industry Kostadinos Mihalos strongly opposed the idea of ​​referendum. He said exclusively for GRReporter, that a referendum on whether Greece should continue or leave the tripartite financial support has no meaning. "We have a formal government elected democratically by the majority in the Parliament and the idea of ​​referendums and surveys are first groundless and secondly unnecessary," Mihalos did not hide his frustration and amazement before GRReporter.

Daskalopoulos said in his speech that the crisis is economic, but the problems in the country are political and social. "The state itself sabotages the opportunities to change and improve." The vicious practices of the past have turned Greece into a country of minimum effort and low capacity," said the industrialist. "The time has come to change this." He criticized the government that its actions are not result-oriented. "Greece needs a strong government that is stable in its decisions and does not hesitate in making decisions. People will ask for the change, if we continue to linger with tough decisions taking."

Daskalopoulos seriously criticized the opposition forces in the country - not only the political, but also the social and the party ones as well as the trade unions that attempt to hinder the reform and recovery efforts. He said that an end should be put to the political hooliganism which is exercised whenever the government tries to make a bolder reform. Daskalopoulos referred to the constant strikes and protests of various trade unions in Greece, which are directly related to the party system. In many cases, they are not fighting to preserve the common good but to protect their own interests.

The chairman of the Federation admitted that many truths were saved to the Greek people in the beginning of the crisis. One of them is that the standard of living would fall significantly and most likely it would never return to the levels before the crisis. It is mainly because the old standard of living has been artificially created by cheap credit rather than production. "We could talk about economic growth only if all the planned reforms are applied and the structures of the state radically change." He did not hesitate to say that if the Greeks do not make the necessary actions, hell awaits them.

Not so enthusiastic about the coming additional measures is Kostadinos Mihalos from the Athens Chamber of Commerce and Industry. He particularly criticized the package of additional tax increases that would suffocate any entrepreneurial activity in the country. Healthy companies would not put up with the unfair policy that would lead them to beggary and dismissals, warned the businessman. They would oppose the planned policy and would join to their employees’ voce to protect their rights. Mihalos made it clear that the small business would not allow bearing the brunt of the crisis because the government is unable or unwilling to cope with the big tax cheaters.

"Greece is not able to accept more taxes or increases. The companies pay significant taxes and lots of it," said Prof. Yannis Stournaras, director of the Institute for Economic and Industrial Research. He said the government should take more effective actions in the field of tax evasion, which is the Achilles heel of Greece. "Someone makes a mistake. 70% of the self-employed do not pay taxes here, not a single euro, and we should not blame the Memorandum for it." Stournaras did not miss the proposal of the opposition New Democracy, which suggests slashing taxes as an incentive for new investment. According to the economist, such an act would increase the deficit in the current situation and would not help to revive the market as the opposition leader Antonis Samaras presents it.