Athens - Greek Prime
Minister Antonis Samaras pledged on Saturday to cut taxes and gradually end
austerity as he seeks to woo voters and overturn a poll lead by the leftist
opposition party Syriza ahead of a snap election.
Opinion polls show
radical leftist Syriza, which opposes Greece's international bailout programme,
ahead of Samaras' centre-right New Democracy party with two weeks until snap
polls triggered by parliament's failure to elect a new president.
Amid fierce
campaigning, Samaras is trying to focus on the improvement in Greece's finances
and the first signs of economic growth after a six-year recession, promising to
ease the financial pressure faced by many Greeks if his party is re-elected.
“There won't be any
further pension and wage cuts,” he told party members and supporters at a
central Athens hotel. “The next breakthrough in our growth plan includes tax
cuts across the board which can happen gradually, step by step.”
Greek economy grew in
the first quarter last year for the first time since the second quarter of 2009
and continued expanding until the third quarter of 2014.
Samaras vowed to lower
an unpopular property tax this year and reduce corporation tax to 15 percent
from 26 percent gradually to boost investment.
However, in a veiled
attack on his main election rivals, he tied such promises and a return to wider
prosperity in Greece to successfully concluding negotiations with international
lenders to exit the bailout and securing debt relief.
“Who can get that? A
responsible government, as a reward for the sacrifices made by the Greek people
who met the targets, without clashing with (European) partners and any kind of
turbulence,” he said.
Greece's bailout talks
with lenders will resume once a new government is in place after the elections.
Samaras' main
opponent, Syriza's head Alexis Tsipras, has taken a harder line towards EU/IMF
partners, saying he wanted to cancel austerity measures which form part of the
bailout that is keeping Greece afloat, raise the minimum wage and freeze state
layoffs.
He also wants Europe
to write off a big chunk of Greece's debt as part of a re-negotiation with
lenders, something that has spooked the financial markets.
Tsipras said during a
pre-election tour on Saturday Greece would become a “colony” with no future if
the bailout policies continued.
(Πηγή: iol.co.za)
