The anti-popular nature of the new budget, which is a tool for redistribution from the many to the few, was pointed out by the Secretary General of the Central Committee of the KKE, Dimitris Koutsoubas, at the beginning of his speech, noting that it is the first budget within the framework of the EU's war economy and the new Medium-Term Program for the four-year period 2025 - 2028. On the occasion of the incident in the Thessaloniki metro, he denounced the government's responsibilities for the lack of safety measures in transportation, noting that the government's priorities are not the needs of the people, but "how to give money to the robbers of the people's labor, the big-name capitalists, and not money at the service of the people, the workers, their social needs and the necessary infrastructure." Rejecting the government's claim that the budget is "socially oriented" because it provides for "increases in wages, pensions and social spending", he noted that they are essentially reductions, since the increases for public sector workers are only 40 cents per day, while the 2.5% increase in pensions is even below the official inflation rate of 2.7%. He complained that spending on Education remains at last year's miserable levels, while the notorious increase in spending on Health is the money that the people will pay in order to cover the gap from the reduction in employer health insurance contributions. He accused the government of lying when it claims that the increase in tax revenues comes from the crackdown on tax evasion and development. In reality, revenues are increasing due to increased unfair and unpopular indirect taxes, he noted. He added that of the total 70 billion that are the projected tax revenues for 2025, only 7.9 billion are corporate income taxes, while the rest will be paid by the people and employees. Regarding the notorious crackdown on tax evasion, he noted that the only ones paying it are the struggling self-employed professionals, whom the government considers a "structural problem" of the Greek economy that wants to take them out of the market for the benefit of multinationals. Referring to the banks and the alleged measures that the Prime Minister will announce, he noted that 3.5 billion remain unscathed. euros in the first 9 months of 2024, while the government's measures are limited to limiting their supplies while they enjoy the deferred tax that the current and previous governments maintained, along with the three recapitalizations paid for by the Greek people. Regarding military spending, he stressed that in the context of the Draghi report and the war economy, the Greek people will pay exorbitant amounts, not for defense needs as the government claims, but for NATO's needs and war-mongering plans, citing Rutte's statements where he called on European governments to cut pensions and social spending to buy weapons. Referring to developments in Syria, he denounced the government's celebrations over the dominance of jihadist terrorists after the fall of the unpopular Assad regime. D. Koutsoumbas also denounced the PASOK and SYRIZA parties, which pretend to be fiercely opposed to government policy, but are in essence a convenient opposition, since they support the government in all strategic choices, recalling that just last week PASOK voted in favor of 9 out of the 15 articles of the minimum wage bill. In conclusion, he noted that in order for the people to win, they must lose capital, today part of their profits, tomorrow their very power, from the organized and determined people, pointing out that "the KKE will once again be at the forefront of the struggle so that the anti-popular commitments contained in the budget are not implemented." See here: https://www.902.gr/eidisi/politiki/38... -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 902.gr: https://www.902.gr KKE: https://www.kke.gr KNE: https://www.kne.gr Rizospastis: https://www.rizospastis.gr Odigitis: https://www.odigitis.gr Communist Review: https://www.komep.gr Modern Era Publications: https://sep.gr