This year’s Thessaloniki International Fair was once again the leading political and economic event of the year. The Prime Minister announced a package of measures that is not limited to handouts, but constitutes a coherent policy intervention aimed at supporting society and strengthening the country’s growth momentum.
Since 2019, the government has consistently followed a strategy with a clear goal: to change Greece. From the years of uncertainty and the memoranda, our country has emerged stronger, with robust growth, restored credibility abroad, successive tax cuts and substantial reforms across the entire range of the economy and society.
Greece no longer passively follows developments. It shapes them, with a steady plan that is bearing fruit and improving citizens’ everyday lives.
The measures announced at the Fair rest on three key axes: support for the family, strengthening the middle class and boosting social cohesion.
First, support for the family and tackling the demographic challenge become a national priority. With income tax reductions according to the number of children, with substantial benefits for families with three or more children, as well as additional relief for young people, a new tax framework is being shaped that supports the Greek family in practice.
Second, the middle class, which bore the greatest burden of the crisis, continues to see tangible results. Lower tax rates, the removal of distortions, rent relief and the extension of housing incentives create room for higher disposable income and a better quality of life.
This is the largest tax reform since the restoration of democracy, the fruit of systematic work that began in 2019. A strategic breakthrough that responds to the real needs of society.
Third, the measures have a clear social focus. Pay rises for uniformed personnel and the Armed Forces, salary improvements in the public sector, and support for low-income pensioners and vulnerable groups prove in practice that growth is not an abstract concept, but translates into fair distribution and support for those who need it most.
The vindication of this strategy also has an additional, special significance and value for me personally. The systematic effort made to combat tax evasion — a policy I served with vigour and determination as Deputy Minister of National Economy & Finance — is now producing tangible results. And, as we had committed from the outset, the fruits of this effort are being returned to society. The Prime Minister turned this commitment into action.
Politics often involves difficulties, adversity and even bitterness. But moments like this give real meaning to public service.
The opposition criticises the government for its choices. But the truth is that politics is always a matter of choices. Given the fiscal space of €1.76 billion for 2026, the government chose to direct resources where social need is greatest: to reducing taxation for families with children, to supporting 330,000 young people up to the age of 30 who will see their tax eliminated or substantially reduced, and to hundreds of thousands of pensioners and uniformed personnel who will see substantial increases.
Today’s government chose stability instead of adventure, a coherent strategy instead of “scattered measures”, and support for the family and the middle class instead of easy populism.
Every euro of fiscal space is used in a fair and targeted way, so as to have a multiplier benefit for society and the economy.
The positive footprint of the measures is already visible in numbers: hundreds of thousands of families will see tax cuts, young workers up to the age of 25 will pay zero tax, uniformed personnel and pensioners will see substantial increases, and owners and tenants will receive greater support.
But the footprint is also qualitative: society sees that the government is not deviating from the programme it presented in 2019. Greece is moving step by step towards normality, growth and social justice.
The message from Thessaloniki is clear: our country is changing with a plan, with consistency and with respect for the sacrifices of its citizens. And above all, it is changing with a policy that returns the growth dividend to society, without endangering the stability we have worked so hard to achieve.
The New Democracy government, led by the Prime Minister, proves once again that it can combine responsibility with ambition and action for a better Greece.
A strong, outward-looking Greece with social justice, which honours its commitments and looks to the future with confidence.
My article on the website “capital.gr” • 12.09.2025
