By Michalis Soulis *
Our economy is evolving year by year into an oligarchy. There are the few who own the wealth while the majority of the world can no longer even have the necessities. Wealth unfortunately accumulates in the few and the rest in the "best" case - if they are not unemployed - they work with low wages and low pensions, not being able to provide for themselves and their families what they need.
My personal goal is a fairer and more prosperous economy for all, not just the few. A fairer redistribution of national wealth is needed so that the fruits of economic growth and prosperity are enjoyed by all and not just by a small social class.
Our fellow citizens must live in financial comfort and prosper through their jobs and pensions. It is necessary for everyone to have a job but also a pension that will provide them with the obvious: dignity, prosperity and, above all, financial independence.
A large portion of our fellow citizens work with low pay and insecure work. Our aim should be - and will be my goal - to protect workers with the right to equal and fair work and pay. Economic inequality must disappear in the pursuit of common prosperity.
There are hundreds of retirees who can not provide for themselves and their families. The mockery must stop and it will stop.
Unfortunately, despite the celebrations of the rulers, one in five of our fellow citizens (22,3%) in 2019 lived below the threshold of the risk of poverty and social exclusion. At the same time, one in ten of our fellow citizens (9,1%) in 2019 lacked access to basic goods and services. This can not go on anymore. This must stop immediately.
The pandemic left open wounds in all sectors but especially in the economy. Businesses closed and will not reopen, people lost their jobs and saw their incomes shrink.
Day by day and year by year we see our economy relying on workers and retirees but wealth concentrating on the few.
My personal goal but also the goal of "Generation Change" is nothing but the creation of a framework for fairer redistribution of wealth, fairer pensions, higher wages and humane working conditions.
We need to attract foreign capital in the right and legal way in order to create new jobs in areas of real growth. We suggest the provision of tax incentives or even the provision of citizenship under strict conditions, in exchange for modern, competitive and decent jobs in innovative productive sectors of the Cypriot economy. Introduce legislation to extend the tax breaks currently granted by the government to foreign employees with a salary of more than 100 euros for the inclusion of Cypriot workers. To support small and medium enterprises that before the great economic crisis were the backbone of our economy. Proper absorption of European funds. Immediately have a fairer system of taxation and social security. And generally to create an economy that will support them all away from corruption and entanglement.
Corruption today has become synonymous with the political and economic life of the country, with the result that citizens are turning their backs on politicians and politics in general.
Corruption and entanglement plague our society for several years and dragging Cyprus internationally while undermining the very institution of Democracy and the Rule of Law.
We witnessed the passport scandal. We witnessed a political and partisan feast of many years that stigmatized our country internationally. Unfortunately this was just the tip of the iceberg. Under the surface, scandals, corruption and entanglement are a malformed wound that finally needs to be healed.
In this context, the political and economic actors, as well as the officials in the state machine must be subject to stricter controls and the application of deterrent punishments in order to achieve the cleansing in our society.
Michalis Soulis is a Member of Parliament for Famagusta with the Generation Change Party.
Brief CV
He was born in Larnaca in 1988 and lives in Xylotymvou. He comes from the occupied Achna and the occupied Vitsada of the Province of Famagusta, birthplaces of his father and mother respectively. He is married and has a son.
He is a graduate of the American Academy in Larnaca and during his military service he served as a Probationary Reserve Officer. I have studied Civil Engineering with honors and I have done a postgraduate course in Construction Project Management in Great Britain with a scholarship. I have also studied welding engineering (IWE-EWE) in Greece.
Today I work as a Technical Director in a private construction company, and I was also a professor at UCLan University teaching welding theory. I am a member of the Institute of Civil Engineering of England (ICE), ETEK and the Hellenic Institute of Welding.
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