15 December 2024

Greek parliament — Lawmakers of the ruling New Democracy (ND) party give a round of applause after Greece’s PM Kyriakos Mitsotakis finished his speech during the 2025 budget debate. Credit: AMNA

Greece passed the 2025 budget after a five-day debate concluded on Sunday night in the country’s Parliament.

With a roll-call vote that is traditionally also considered a confidence vote for the government, the center-right New Democracy (ND) government of Kyriakos Mitsotakis passed the budget for 2025 with 159 votes in favor out of 300 MPs.

The marathon session, which began earlier this week, featured speeches from party leaders and culminated with an address by Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis.

The 2025 budget, described by Mitsotakis as a “budget of progress,” passed with the support of ruling New Democracy (ND) MPs and independent right-wing lawmakers.

According to the details of the budget, Greece aims to achieve a primary surplus of 2.4 percent of GDP in 2025, following a projected 2.5 percent surplus in 2024.

The budget includes a total of twelve different tax cuts and twelve salary increases, reflecting “the government’s commitment to economic growth and social support,” as the ruling lawmakers noted in their speeches.

Greece to slash bank fees with 2025 budget

In his speech, Prime Minister Mitsotakis announced several measures aimed at addressing concerns about the banking sector, which saw significant profits in 2024 amid growing dissatisfaction from the public over some of the fees they charge for simple, everyday transactions.

Windfall profit for banks in the first nine months of 2024 was 3.5 billion euros (approximately $3.8B), with full-year estimates projecting a total of around 4.5 billion euros (approximately $4.8B), marking the highest profit for Greek banks in the past decade.

Mitsotakis announced that all fees for basic bank transactions are zeroed out, including tax payments and payments to insurance companies, municipalities, energy, water supply, and telecommunications companies.

There will also be a limit of up to 0.50 euros on money transfers up to 5,000 euros.

Mitsotakis also emphasized the need for a more competitive banking system that benefits both borrowers and depositors, stating that banks must responsibly return a share of the growth dividend to society.

This is why Greece’s PM announced that 100 million euros will be transferred from the financial system to be allocated either for the renovation of existing state schools or for the construction of new ones.

Greece’s Premier Mitsotakis noted that the country ranks among the top three worldwide for economic performance in 2024, according to The Economist.

Other details in Greece’s 2025 Budget

Defense spending will see a significant increase in Greece, with the budget nearly doubling to 6.1 billion euros, up from 3.6 billion euros a few years ago. This rise is attributed to increased military equipment purchases scheduled for 2025 and reflects Greece’s response to regional security challenges, including Ukraine and the Middle East.

The budget for Greece’s defense was voted on not only by ND lawmakers but also by MPs from PASOK, SYRIZA, and Greek Solution (EL) parties.

The 2025 budget also emphasizes innovation and investment, with the approval of four high-added-value investments totaling 253 million euros.

Additionally, Prime Minister Mitsotakis noted in his speech that Greece has been selected as one of seven EU countries to build the first AI Factories on European soil, turning the country into a tech hub of the 21st century.

Greece’s opposition votes against 2025 budget

Nikos Androulakis, leader of the Opposition in Greece — Nikos Androulakis, the leader of the Opposition in Greece, accused Mitsotakis of ”partisan egotism and excessive arrogance.” Credit: AMNA

All Opposition parties voted against the 2025 budget. Main Opposition leader and President of the PASOK party Nikos Androulakis said that “New Democracy’s economic policy is the joy of oligopolies in food, energy, private health, and banking. The result is these inequalities continue to widen and Greek society lives with reduced expectations in a regime of economic insecurity.”

During his speech in Parliament, the opposition leader asked the Greek people “to not settle for stagnation and injustice” in their life.

Androulakis added that ”there is another way and together we can do it. We cannot accept that Greece will turn into a country of opportunity for rich people from abroad to buy real estate and not a country with opportunities for its children.”

The President of SYRIZA Socrates Famellos, had accused earlier the government that they are “giving pensioners a spoonful of the soup of super profits”, adding that the government’s ideology is to turn Greece into a country of ”cheap labor.”

All other smaller opposition parties, including the Communist Party (KKE), right-wing Greek Solution (EL), the New Left, right-wing Niki party and left-wing Course of Freedom (PE) voted against the 2025 budget.

The original article: https://greekreporter.com/2024/12/15/greece-eliminate-bank-fee-2025-budget-record-profit/ belongs to GreekReporter.com .