There is a cartoon by Kostas Mitropoulos showing two people standing in front of a newsstand. One says, “Ah, it smells like spring…” The other, looking at the newspapers announcing new benefits, replies, “It smells like elections…”
And so the main socialist opposition PASOK leader Nikos Androulakis promised free public transport for young people up to the age of 24. Even more generously, Alexis Tsipras, the former leftist prime minister and now leader of the Greek Left Alliance (ELAS), promised free transport for everyone. The conservative Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis promised – for the second time – to build a hospital on the island of Kos, adding it to the 128 hospitals already operating across the country’s regions.
Clearly, the prime minister was following the same line of thinking as Tsipras in 2018, during a meeting with residents affected by the deadly wildfire in the eastern Attica resort town of Mati. “Let me tell you something: Even if you received the €2,000 handout, what would you do with it? You’d just waste it,” Tsipras told a local who was seeking emergency assistance. Mitsotakis’ argument rests on a similar premise:
“And if you have money left over from the tickets, what will you do with it? You’ll waste it. But a hospital will remain.”
