“The government of Kyriakos Mitsotakis, in all crises, has proven that it takes all those measures to ensure that no citizen is left behind. That is why it has had and will have the support of Greek society” replied Environment and Energy Minister Stavros Papastavrou, to SYRIZA President Socrates Famellos, in relation to what he claimed during his speech on the draft law of the Ministry of Development “Ratification of the 11.3.2026 Legislative Content Act “Urgent regulations for the curbing of unfair profitability” (A 37)” in the plenary session.
The minister said that Famelos accused the government “of taxes, of policies against the middle class and that we are the government that signs hydrocarbon deals with American companies and “damn it!” Seriously, SYRIZA is talking about taxes… are you forgetting that you hold the national championship of taxing the Greek citizen? Do you forget that? We abolished 83 taxes. Shall we also talk about the specific fuel excise tax that you are asking us to reduce? Who has signed off on the current level of VAT on petrol and diesel? The signature is SYRIZA.”
Papastavrou, referring to the SYRIZA president’s criticisms of the Chevron deal, said: “Really? Wasn’t it you who signed in 2019? Weren’t you photographed and smiling then? And now you’re blaming us? And as for the word “fucking” you said, I don’t know if it was an internal rebuke in your own camp. I won’t comment on that.”
On reports that Austria had announced a reduction in fuel taxes, the minister said, “The Austrian government announced a measure that is not being implemented as we speak. It will be put in Parliament to be implemented by 1 April. In other words, we are being blamed by Syriza because we took a measure (a cap on the profit margin on fuel) on March 11 compared to someone who will take a measure on April 1. This is the logic of SYRIZA!”
Mr. Papastavrou, citing EU data that he said he would give to the president of SYRIZA, “Greece, in March, had the fifth lowest wholesale electricity price in Europe, while in 2019 we were first in terms of the most expensive price! Did it happen? Done. How many renewables did we have in 2019? 6.5 GWATT. And how many do we have today? 17 GWATT! As a result, 55% of our electricity comes from RES, so the cost to the Greek citizen has not increased and we are 5th in wholesale.”
The minister said, addressing all opposition parties, that “one thing is certain. There is a genuine will of all parties to have measures that will support the Greek citizen. Nobody said they would be the only ones. But they showed the immediate reflexes and the message was passed that we will not accept any appearance of obscenity,” he added: “The government of Kyriakos Mitsotakis has proven one thing. In all crises, it takes those measures with only one goal, that no one is left behind. That is why it has had and will continue to have the support of Greek society.”
