Will 2023 be a better year?

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This is our weekly round-up from Greece and the last one for 2022.

As we say goodbye to 2022, we sadly have to report that children’s health in Greece could be at risk. Gravely understaffed and underfunded, children’s hospitals are collapsing, with the little ones having to wait up to 8 hours to be examined or be put on a very long waiting list if they have to undertake an operation. There is also a shortage of children’s (and other) medicine. But, ho ho ho, ministers distribute sponsor’s presents to children in hospitals.

Greece has by far the highest electricity price in Europe. Why is that? For sure, because of a rigged market and corrupt policies, as we explain.

2022 was also marked in the country by two massive scandals - the ‘Greek Watergate’ and the Qatar Gate. Developments for these two seem non-stop.

Spare the children - at least

It was at the beginning of December when Public Hospital Employees Panhellenic Association president Michalis Yannakos was describing (Si apre in una nuova finestra) in the darkest colors the situation in one of the two largest Paediatric Hospitals in the country, ‘Paidon Aglaia Kyriakou’, in Athens: “Yesterday, the waiting time for an examination was 8 hours. At this time [20.45] 100 children with fever are waiting to be examined,” he was stating. Hospital personnel was “in despair,” he added, asking the government to employ more staff.

The parents were informed about the waiting time. Hospital staff suggested they visit another Paediatric Hospital in the Penteli area - far from there.

On 22 December, it was reported (Si apre in una nuova finestra) that circa 1,500 children were on the waiting list for surgery at the other big Paediatric Hospital, ‘Paidon Aghia Sofia.’ This was due to the hospital being very understaffed, doctors said. There are only two functioning operating tables, while at least four are necessary for a proper number of surgeries to be conducted daily, it was reported (Si apre in una nuova finestra). The total operating tables are ten - yet, due to a lack of personnel, only those mentioned above two are operating. According to another report, only 15 surgeries are performed monthly, while before the pandemic, this number was 20-25.

In September 2022, reports revealed (Si apre in una nuova finestra) 3,000 children were waiting for an operation. Health Minister Plevris had promised that action would be taken to improve the situation. Yet, at the dawn of the New Year, nothing has changed.

The hospital is reported (Si apre in una nuova finestra) to lack especially anaesthesiologists and as many as 280 nurses.

There are also strong reactions against government plans (Si apre in una nuova finestra) to privatize the ‘Paidon Aghia Sophia’ Cancer Ward partly.

Meanwhile, it was reported on 29 December that the country suffers from great shortages in children’s essential medicine (Si apre in una nuova finestra) - for example, for fever, respiratory diseases, and cough. There are shortages though, in all kinds of medicine (Si apre in una nuova finestra). One of the reasons for these shortages is that pharmacy warehouses export Greek medicine to Europe to achieve higher prices and, thus, higher profits. This is the so-called ‘parallel exports (Si apre in una nuova finestra).’ According to experts (Si apre in una nuova finestra), these ‘parallel exports’ benefit the state budget, the importing countries (especially Northern European ones, a characteristic example being Germany, where it is provided by law that 7% of the medicine warehouses sales should be from medicine imported from ‘parallel trade’ from cheaper countries like Greece), multinational pharmaceutical companies regarding off-patent (as in importing countries they compete with generics), and Greek medicine trade.

The losers are the patients (Si apre in una nuova finestra), the pharmacies, the pharmaceutical companies for on-patent medicine (as they are sold cheaper in importing countries), and the health system.

What did the Greek government do to deal with this situation?

Health Minister Plevris and Development Minister Georgiadis announced (Si apre in una nuova finestra) they visited the children's hospital ‘Paidon Pentelis’ on Thursday and distributed gifts to children. They have been photographed (Si apre in una nuova finestra) giving a gift to a child in a bag with the business logo that apparently ‘sponsored’ the visit.

That was about it.

We are ‘large’ in Greece - The highest electricity price in Europe.

Greece has the highest electricity price in the wholesale market in Europe - and not by a thin margin.

On Friday, 30 December, one MWh in Greece cost (Si apre in una nuova finestra) 228.15 euros. Italy followed with 179.51, and then all other countries followed with prices under 100 euros - e.g., Austria 37.94, Belgium 16.77, Germany 14.63, Spain 6.02.

This is just insane.

Some reports (Si apre in una nuova finestra) attempted to explain why electricity prices in the country remain so high. According to one line of analysis, it is partly the peculiarity of the Greek wholesale electricity market in terms of the integration of the cost of natural gas in electricity generation (which reflects the prices of the previous month) that “explains” the large price gap.

“According to this, the producers buy the next month’s gas at the previous month’s prices due to the absence of a spot market. Therefore the final price of electricity produced today incorporates the cost of the fuel in the month of November when it was purchased and not the current spot price, which has fallen back to the levels where it was at the beginning of the year before Russia invades Ukraine,” it is reported.

More details were included in the report, yet it’s not a persuasive explanation.

DiEM25 accused the government of attempting to justify these extraordinary prices by referring to “imported costliness.” “This same costliness is not ‘imported’ to the rest of European countries, and Mr. Mitsotakis is a ‘champion’ in these imports”, they emphasized.

“This happens when an oligarchy mafia in electricity takes advantage of the repulsive Energy ‘Stockmarket’ to the detriment of society. A pseudo-stock market set up by the previous SYRIZA government in the name of effective competition, which supposedly would decrease prices and which has skyrocketed afterward, by Mr. Mitsotakis and the ND,” DiEM25 pointed out.

We have extensively analyzed the ‘energy stock market’ fraud in Greece in this newsletter. Just a refresher:

According to investigative reporting (Si apre in una nuova finestra), in 2018, the Greek Energy Stock Market’ was created, which manages the largest part of the so-called target model. It finally operated in November 2020. According to European standards, four wholesale markets are provided within the target model, a kind of “stock exchange” in the context of transactions in relation to sizeable electric power quantities. The producers sell these quantities to the system, which sells them to the providers. In their turn, the providers sell the energy they buy to the consumers. It is reported (Si apre in una nuova finestra) that the target model started increasing wholesale energy prices from the first months of its operation.

It is striking that Greece is the only country in Europe where 100% (Si apre in una nuova finestra) of the energy flowing into the system goes through this kind of “stock exchange” - where some speculative incidents (Si apre in una nuova finestra) have been registered. Switzerland comes second with 38%, while Britain's percentage is only 13%, and the rest is settled through long-term contracts.

“Four oligarchs, Mytilinaios, Vardinogiannis, Peristeris, and Latsis, define the prices through an Energy Stockmarket. It is a fraud,” DiEM25 general secretary Yanis Varoufakis has explained (Si apre in una nuova finestra). “A Stock Market -to analyze it from the classical liberal pro-capitalist viewpoint- works only if many players compete. In an open market with 100 tomato sellers, no one increases the prices because you will go and buy from the next one. If, however, they were only three, they could reach an understanding to fix the price at, let’s say, 20 euros/kilo.” Varoufakis added.

In much the same way, the DiEM25 general secretary continued, the aforementioned “oligarchs” define a price in an email address and send the prices they have agreed beforehand altogether. The supposedly supervising system -RAE- chooses the most expensive Kw/h and sets all other Kw/hours to match it. “It is a crime. Mafia works for Mafia profits.”

Adding insult to injury, the ND government has subsidized electricity bills instead of putting a price cap on electricity prices. This way, it indirectly yet supports the energy oligarchs.

“Priority for the Mitsotakis government is to give out super-profits to electricity companies and refineries without intervening to reduce prices. Thus, in January, 840 million euros, citizens' money (from bills or the Climate Fund) will be given to subsidize costliness,” SYRIZA lawmakers stated (Si apre in una nuova finestra). “Out of 2.2 billion euros electricity production super-profits for the period July 2021-June 2022, the government collects only 373 million and gives out 1.8 billion euros!” they added indicatively.

It was reported (Si apre in una nuova finestra) in November that energy company Motor Oil, Vardinogiannis group, had record net profits of more than 1 billion euros within nine months in 2022, “while in the corresponding period in 2021 [net profits] were 206 million euros.”

At the same time, it is reported that, apart from electricity prices expected to increase by 25% in January 2023, heating oil will become more expensive (Si apre in una nuova finestra) from 1 January.

Meanwhile, as of November 2022, there were more than one million (Si apre in una nuova finestra)unemployed people in Greece, with more than 200,000 jobs lost (Si apre in una nuova finestra) in October and November. It seems irrelevant but gives the big picture of the grave difficulties people in the country are facing.

Greek Holiday Season with plenty of scandals

The revelations regarding the ‘Greek Watergate’ seem to be non-stop.

On Christmas Eve, it was revealed (Si apre in una nuova finestra) that a Greek PM aide is applying pressure on telecommunication companies Vodafone and Wind so that they do not facilitate an inspection by ADAE (the Hellenic Authority for Communication Security and Privacy).

According to an exclusive report by the news website ieidiseis.gr, on Christmas Eve morning (that is the day it was verified that Greek Army Staff head Konstantinos Floros was target No 519c of the National Information Service EYP), a very close PM aid contacted the two companies and asked them not to facilitate ADAE investigation. He justified his intervention on the ground that the checks “will be illegal, according to the new law.”

The report noted that it is precisely the same argument top prosecutor Doyakos had used when he contacted Cosmote telecommunications company.

This time the intervention came directly from the PM’s office and not from the prosecution authority - whatever this might mean on government meddling with independent authorities, it was emphasized.

As to the Qatar Gate, it was reported on Thursday that with an urgent request, the president of Greece’s Anti-Money Laundering Authority asked authorities in Panama (Si apre in una nuova finestra) to provide information on whether an amount totaling 20 million euros have been transferred from Qatar to bank accounts, which may have been opened in the name of Eva Kaili and partner Francesco Giorgi.

From the beginning, Kaili’s Greek lawyer Michalis Dimitrakopoulos has questioned the authenticity of the disputed bank documents published on the internet. He stated that the documents showing the transfer of money from the official state of Qatar to the Bank of Qatar and then transfer to three bank accounts in Panama to Eva Kaili, her mother, and her father are “most fake.”.

The lawyer had announced that he would request the Anti-Money Laundering Authority to send the relevant request to Panama authorities.

On Thursday, Dimitrakopoulos issued a press release, according to which no connection has been proved between Kaili-Panama bank and Qatar. According to the lawyer who calls upon the Panama Bank response, “there is no direct or indirect involvement of any kind with the people interrogated in the case mentioned above, including Eva Kaili.”

To be continued in the New Year.