Tsipras meets pensioners in Egaleo, pledges to restore 13th pension

Main opposition SYRIZA-Progressive Alliance leader Alexis Tsipras on Monday had a meeting with pensioners at a cafe in the west Athens district of Egaleo. Tsipras delivered a speech and afterwards had an opportunity to talk with pensioners and listen to their problems, their proposals and demands.

Tsipras spoke of a double deception of pensioners by the government, noting that Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis had abolished the 13th pension after pledging to keep it and had not given back payments from bonus and supplementary pensions awarded by a Council of State ruling.

"In current conditions, where incomes are vanishing and pensions disappear in the first 15 days [of the month], it must be a priority to support the vulnerable and those on low incomes, and therefore pensioners," he said.

"Our target is to restore the 13th pension and back payments to pensioners, to abolish the privatisation of supplementary insurance. All this is a given," he added.

"You say that you owe us a four-year term. No, you do not owe us anything, we owe it to you to have an opportunity to rule for four years without the troika's supervision, so that we can put into action all the things we dream of for you, for society - namely, justice. We owe to you, not you to us," concluded Tsipras.