Androulakis and Pierrakakis clash in Greek parliament over 13th pension and DETH measures

The plenary clash

Greek Finance Minister Kyriakos Pierrakakis and PASOK leader Nikos Androulakis clashed in the plenary on 12 November while parliament debated a bill that writes into law income measures Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis announced at the Thessaloniki International Fair (DETH). The exchange turned personal when Androulakis pointed to old videos of the minister from his time inside PASOK and said:

“Diabolical coincidence, the party that played the lead role is the party you are a minister of today.”

Pierrakakis hit back that repeating the past suggested Androulakis had nothing to say about the future. He also cited the vote on the servicers bill in the week of 2 November, saying he had polled his aides and none of them understood PASOK's stance.

Fiscal space and the 13th pension

Androulakis said PASOK proposed reinstating the 13th pension on 7 July, and that the government then dismissed the idea as populist, arguing that only 1 billion euros of fiscal space was available. He said that space more than doubled in August, which he linked to fitting the DETH package into the budget. His party's programme also includes a new EKAS and restoring the 13th salary for public servants in two installments. He called the 500 euro payment to public servants at the end of 2027, 13 months after the vote, a mockery, and claimed the pensioner increase leaves out 350,000 people.

Pierrakakis credited the wider space to talks on the energy escape clause, noting that Greece was the first country to obtain it, and said the government had legislated a 250 euro pensioner payment before PASOK's July proposal. Androulakis put the gross gap between the two parties' first installments of the 13th pension and 13th salary at 500 million euros, saying that for that sum PASOK was labelled populist and ND was labelled responsible. Pierrakakis countered that seven of PASOK's announcements cost 6.49 billion euros and asked Androulakis to explain to the Fiscal Council how they would be financed. Pierrakakis said:

“You promise without calculating and spend on words without paying.”

Cost of living and inequality

Androulakis said inflation rose from 3.8% in August to 5% in September and 5.7% in October, and that annual increases of 15% to 80% hit rent, heating, electricity and transport.

2026-08

3.8 %

2026-09

5 %

2026-10

5.7 %

Data from the article text

He asked what would remain for households, workers and pensioners out of the government's handouts. He argued that Greece's average wage is less than half the European average and that, despite about 80 billion euros from ESPA, the CAP and the Recovery Fund, the country climbed from 10th to 4th place in the EU on inequality. Social protection spending, he said, grew 4.9% across the EU in 2025 but only 0.6% in Greece. He mocked the DETH measures with irony, saying:

“Miracles happen in our days too. As long as these miracles help the propaganda of New Democracy.”

Political messages

Androulakis told parliament that the Maximos Mansion, the seat of the prime minister's office, breeds impunity, corruption and opacity, and said voters would punish New Democracy at the next national elections. He described every vote for PASOK as a vote for political change and a defeat for the arrogance he attributed to the government. Pierrakakis, for his part, said fiscal irresponsibility is not social sensitivity. Androulakis pledged that PASOK would cut direct awards, gifts to construction companies and a clientelist state that he said produces a scandal each week involving ND officials.