Just yesterday, in his first address to his new cabinet, the prime minister outlined the axes of the government’s plan to create a new social state. “That is where the [ideological] core of our policy will be judged,” he said
At the very same time, reality was belying him. According to official data of the Regulatory Authority for Energy, published by Ta Nea, the number of households where electricity was cut off rose by 313 percent over the last three years.
That huge increase reminds one of the fact that when social sensitivity becomes a profession, as it did with this government, it rarely bears results. Those who exploited even a death with a coal-burning heater, accusing the government of callousness, today are busy cutting off the electricity supply of those unable to pay their debts, as they are victims of the brutal over-taxation of their income.
The steep rise in energy cut-offs over the last three years shows something more. Social policy in practice does not require grand rhetoric, but rather systematic efforts to find the funds to relieve the have-nots.
It requires focusing on the target rather than offering great promises, and a methodical effort rather that easy accusations.
Otherwise, sensitivity is nothing but hypocrisy and hollow words, which citizens have heard again and again, and have again and again seen their hopes and expectations dashed in the harshest manner.
