The Greek parliament approved with a large majority on Monday a government draft bill on the financial aid the government will distribute to low-income earners and pensioners in December.

The bill was approved by all the parties except Golden Dawn.

Despite voting in favor of the bill, main opposition New Democracy (ND) leader Kyriakos Mitsotakis charged the government with “taking money out of one pocket and placing it in the other” during the debate.

Mitsotakis said that all measures the coalition government introduced in Greece were worth 14,5 billion euros, and yet it considers it a success that it returned 650 million euros last year and is returning 720 million euros this year.

Specifically, the ND leader charged Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras with lying, saying that the 1.4 billion euros he is distributing to low-income households actually consists of 720 million euros, which was mistakenly collected in the past.

Aid to flood victims

The government also added an amendment for the financial support of those affected by natural disasters that affected Greece is the last three months (including the flood victims in western Attica).

The amendment was approved by all the parties, while the Communist Party voted “Present.”

The deadly floods that killed 20 people and wrecked houses, businesses and infrastructure in western Attica last week are the result of “criminal and inexcusable” construction and town planning of the past decades, Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras said.

“It is an unprecedented disaster caused by an extremely extreme phenomenon,” he said, adding that the floods revealed “in the most tragic way the criminal and inexcusable political choices of decades in construction and town planning,” he added.

Source: greece.greekreporter.com