Labour Minister Katrougalos admits austerity measurers in 3rd memorandum signed by SYRZA-ANEL

Plan to introduce new payments system to pension funds

Greek Minister for Labour George Katrougalos admitted in an interview to Skai TV, Wednesday, that the 3rd memorandum signed by the coalition government of SYRIZA and ANEL included a series of austerity and neoliberal measures. Katrougalos was quite blatant in his admission, saying that if the government had not agreed to slash the main pension to 384 Euros per month then there would be no pension in the future at all! Despite confessing that the current memorandum was full of austerity measures, he defended his government by claiming that it was much milder than the previous programs signed by Greek government with the EU creditors and the IMF. The Minister reiterated the government’s rhetoric of refraining from implementing horizontal cuts in pensioners’ income, but rather adopted a ‘re-evaluation’ of their income without affecting their real income. Katrougalos revealed that his Ministry was considering the introduction of a new system to calculate debt payments to the pennons funds after consulting with Greece’s creditors.