ELEFTHEROTYPIA

Demonstrations are forbidden as the show rolls in

The government decided to ban protests and large gatherings today, turning Athens into a forbidden zone. Parties of the left unite in their condemnation of the move as undemocratic. ‘ANTARSIA’ (Rebellion) as well as ‘Plan B’ and other organisations have called for a gathering at 6pm in front of the University of Athens in defiance of the police ban.

TO ETHNOS

The party in prison and the marriage of Xiros with the ‘Cells of Fire’

Fears of a joining of forces between the new and old generations of terrorists have been expressed by authorities following the disappearance yesterday of Christodoulos Xiros who violated the terms of the prison leave he had been granted. The party at Korydallos prison that followed his flight and the congratulatory tone of the statement released by the terrorist group ‘Conspiracy of the Cells of Fire’ over the escape of the convicted member of November 17 (who had been sentenced to 6 life sentences) give added cause for concern. The Ministry of Justice has announced that it will be seeking a change to the legal framework governing the granting of leave to prisoners.

KATHIMERINI

€25 fee for hospital admission scrapped and replaced with a tax on cigarettes

Antonis Samaras and Evangelos Venizelos came to an agreement to scrap the €25 fee for hospital admissions in their meeting yesterday at the prime ministerial mansion, replacing the revenue that will be lost with an added tax on cigarettes and other tobacco products amounting to 5 cents on the euro. The decision was taken after the implementation of  the new measure provoked an intense backlash, not only from opposition party members but from PASOK as well which demanded it be scrapped.

Furthermore the decision to do away with the hospital fee will come into effect imminently, as the relevant amendment was already submitted to parliament late yesterday night, while earlier in the afternoon the Health Minister Adonis Georgiadis sent an emergency order mandating that admission to public hospitals be granted as it had until the end of 2013. Correspondingly, as Mr Georgiadis made clear after his meeting with PASOK representatives, the revenue from the tax increase on cigarettes and tobacco products will be automatically credited to hospital budgets of the National Health System.

NAFTEMPORIKI

Exports drop significantly

A significant drop in exports registered in the months of October and November 2013 amount to a serious blow to the country’s GDP given that if the negative trend continues they will delay the recovery process even further.

EFIMERIDA TON SYNTAKTON

Finance Minister Giannis Stournaras refuses to go after major tax evaders

He refuses to respond to financial crime prosecutors who have personally asked him permission to proceed with audits

Giannis Stournaras is deafeningly silent when it comes to 65 CDs which contain damning evidence regarding those who may have either evaded tax or engage in money laundering in the period between 2000 and 2012, and which are currently gathering cobwebs in the ministry’s Financial and Economic Crime Unit.

The minister who has jurisdiction over the unit and has bled taxpayers dry, has deaf ears when it comes to the lead prosecutor’s requests for more manpower, instead referring the issue to the Minister of Administrative Reform Kyriakos Mitsotakis. SYRIZA MP Zoe Konstantopoulou has justifiably raised a series of questions over the issue, charging that the latest attempt to cover up the names of important figures who have engaged in tax evasion follows the ‘model of the Lagarde List’.