Luxury cars for politicians — at least in recession-plagued Greece — are soon to be a thing of the past. An armored BMW sedan, purportedly worth around 750,000 euros when bought, along with an equivalent model, will be sold off to raise money for the Greek state.
The top-of-the-line luxury cars were purchased by the socialist government of George Papandreou (2009-11), although the environmentally sensitive ex-PM made a point of being driven around in a hybrid Toyota Prius — as numerous photo-ops testified.
In 2006, there were 57,654 state vehicles, with annual maintenance costs totalling 350 mln euros. In 2010, the number of vehicles were reduced to 44,000 with an annual cost of 320 million euros. Radical Left Coalition (SYRIZA) Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras recently announced that ministries alone utilize 700 cars. Not all of them are for ministers but alson for other personnel — such as general secretaries, university administrators, high-level police officers, and even the spouses of deceased ministers.
A large portion of the fleet of government cars will be auctioned off on e-bay. So far, there has been very little interest for the more expensive models, however, they are not being used in an effort to save costs on fuel and maintenance.
And travel compensation too…
Returning from the EU leaders summit in Brussels, Tsipras was surprised to find a document concerning 525 euros worth of compensation for his travel. “What’s this?” he purportedly asked, shocked that ministers and prime ministers received compensation for days spent traveling.
According to “leaks” by the new government, Tsipras was “angered” by the fact that there was even such a fund, subsequently adding it to a list of cost-saving measures!
No word if this list was submitted during the last Eurogroup session as one of the government’s off-setting measures.
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