Another blow to the poor

The announcements made by Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras regarding the so-called “new welfare state” yesterday do not make up for the losses that have been suffered by citizens on the lower end of the pension scale following the complete or partial cut of the special EKAS benefit – 380,000 retirees on low pensions are currently dependent on this supplementary allowance, which will gradually be phased out by 2019. Even more so, his announcements at a meeting of the government’s Council of Social Policy bear no resemblance to anything that the leader of SYRIZA promised before both the election, particularly through the party’s infamous Thessaloniki economic program. Right now, the leftist party appears to be gradually waking up to reality. But the fact that it is doing so with such a great delay, is coming at a hefty cost for the country and for the people.