“We are taking important steps to reduce bureaucracy, we are moving forward, and other interventions will follow because it is a continuous battle to fight it,” said in Parliament the Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of State, Kostis Hadjidakis in a brief intervention, defending the bill under discussion “Interventions for a more citizen-friendly public sector”.

At the same time, he attacked the opposition, accusing it of “while opposing the bill, not submitting any improvement proposals, while stating categorically against it, will vote in favour of most of its provisions and while wagging its finger, aiming for a few votes, it becomes more bureaucratic than the bureaucrats”.

The Deputy Prime Minister emphasized, among other things, the provisions that provide:

– the obligation to post the circulars.

-the ability of citizens to track through the internet where their case is and who is responsible.

-The abstention of the State from litigating properties of citizens with transferred titles.

“It is a mistake that we have not made this arrangement to date and we have reached the point where the State is claiming an entire city with Ottoman firmanas. This is no longer the case. There is an end to all this, as there have been cases of temporary concessions since the Venizelos era. And I am proud that with my signature, too, an end is being put to stories of daily madness,” Hatzidakis noted.

Hatzidakis also defended the provisions “to upgrade the powers of notaries, and to make it easier for citizens to pay inheritance tax and remove seizure by the AADE”. “It is a title of honour for me to be accused of a miserable triple bill because I am moving, not with my own conscience but with what is happening and in force in other advanced countries.”

The deputy prime minister also accused the opposition of adhering to anachronistic notions, such as its refusal to regulate the possibility for the citizen to replace government documents with an affidavit if he wants to and without being obliged to do so.

He also emphasized the possibility for the administration to partner with certified professionals in the EFKA, noting that the regulation already applies in many different cases, with notaries, lawyers, engineers, accountants.

The strong reaction of Mr. Hatzidakis’ strong reaction to the personal attack launched against him by New Left MP Dimitris Tzanakopoulos, accusing him of never having worked, of being a state-sponsored politician and a proponent of privatization.

“I have been elected since 2007 with the votes of Greek citizens. I am not put off by the personal attacks I have heard because I have several years in politics. But I am saying that we should not get personal with each other. I was criticising the political positions of the left. Is that a reason to be personally attacked? Should I become a leftist? I have never been nor will I ever be a leftist. It doesn’t mean that we have to make personal attacks on each other. It doesn’t make sense,” the Minister of State said.