PASOK – Movement for Change’s energy sector and Fragkiskos Parasyris, the party’s energy policy coordinator, launched an attack on Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis over his comments on DEI and electricity tariffs, in a joint statement.
“If a ‘strong DEI’ could absorb the cost and offer a cheaper fixed tariff, why didn’t it do so for two years? Why did the government reject PASOK’s amendment when other providers were offering cheaper fixed tariffs?” PASOK – Movement for Change said.
The party added that “the prime minister didn’t say a word about the roughly 20% increase in DEI’s variable green tariff, where the large majority of consumers are.”
Finally, it stated that “the deception can’t be hidden behind last-minute PR tricks. Citizens see what they pay on their bills. And voters will make the government pay at the ballot box.”
Full statement from PASOK – Movement for Change:
“Mr. Mitsotakis, just hours after our statement yesterday, came out to triumphantly confirm the two things PASOK has been saying for two years: first, that DEI’s fixed tariff could have been cheaper. Second, that fixed tariffs should be the standard for millions of consumers.
We admit we didn’t expect to be proven right so quickly and so clearly. We thank him for his honesty. But three questions remain, which he carefully avoided answering:
First: why now?
If a ‘strong DEI’ could absorb the cost and offer a cheaper fixed tariff, why didn’t it do so for two years? Why did the government reject PASOK’s amendment when other providers were offering cheaper fixed tariffs?
The answer, unfortunately, is simple: because elections are coming.
Second: why only half the truth?
The prime minister didn’t say a word about the roughly 20% increase in DEI’s variable green tariff, where the large majority of consumers are.
He talked about the cheap tariff for the few, while staying silent on the high prices that more than 3 million households continue to pay.
Third: what ‘shield’ exactly?
Mr. Mitsotakis’s own argument exposes him. If it took a ‘strong DEI’ to bring prices down now, the obvious question is: what was that same ‘strength’ doing for the previous two years?
And here lies the greatest irony. The government that reduced the state’s stake in DEI and weakened public oversight, the government that spent years praising ‘market liberalization,’ now suddenly presents itself as a champion of state intervention. Mr. Mitsotakis says ‘we managed to keep prices low,’ as if he were DEI’s own CEO.
But his policy was the opposite: presenting competition as the solution to everything. Now, when it suits him politically, competition can conveniently be set aside. And this isn’t just a contradiction, it’s institutionally unacceptable, for him to step into the market arena himself and advertise a specific provider’s product, at a time when he’s supposed to be the guarantor of equal terms for everyone.
The deception can’t be hidden behind last-minute PR tricks. Citizens see what they pay on their bills. And voters will make the government pay at the ballot box.”
