PM Mitsotakis: The government chose to protect the citizens' lives
"The government made a very clear choice; it protected the health and lives of the citizens, subordinating its economic planning to this supreme goal," Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis said on Thursday, addressing the Greek parliament during a plenary debate on the economic repercussions of the pandemic.
The government, said Mitsotakis, supported the National Health System and also supported employees and enterprises. "In other words, we consciously spent a great many funds in order to defend the highest good, which is none other than the protection of the citizens' health."
As country we have spent lots of money but we met the first health goal we had set, while other countries that also spent lots of money did not have the same success. The repercussions of this coronavirus attack will undoubtedly be dramatic and on several levels, as this is an unprecedented crisis. No other generation has experienced something like this for over a century," underlined Mitsotakis, and presented the measures the government took to support citizens and enterprises.
The premier noted that the Greek government has taken support measures amounting to 17.5 billion euros, or approximately 10 pct of Greece's GDP. "Our priorities were the support of income and business liquidity. Our first priority was and is the protection of employment and Greece is the only country that has forbidden layoffs and chosen an equal and horizontal support of households," he said.
"Until the last negative repercussion of the pandemic is over, the state will continue to grant the special-purpose benefit to the employees whose labour contracts are suspended or when the businesses they work for are closed," clarified Mitsotakis, adding that the same will apply for uneployment benefits. Those that return to their job but on a part-time basis and in conditions of low turnover will also get state income support, he added.
Referring to the protection of primary residences from foreclosure, the prime minister said that during the coronavirus crisis no Greek will lose his home and that protection of primary residences will be extended for another three months, until the end of July 2020.
Source: ana-mna
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