Former labour federations’ top researcher George Romanias, the general secretary of social security, dropped a “verbal bomb” during his statements on a morning news program on private Antenna TV station on Monday by saying he will not cancel a ‘zero deficit’ clause on supplementary pensions but will ‘freeze’ them indefinitely.

“Whether the ‘zero deficit’ clause is abolished or suspended, there will be pension reductions,” he said.

Former labor, social security and welfare minister Yiannis Vroutsis, later tweeted: “The mask of populism has dropped! Another pre-election trick on pensioners comes to an end. The zero deficit clause is not being abolished!”

A Radical Left Coalition (SYRIZA) government non paper on Friday afternoon said the government “would legally abolish the zero deficit clause for auxiliary pensions so that these remain as they had been formulated on Dec. 31, 2014.”