ATHENS – Communist Party of Greece (KKE) General Secretary Dimitris Koutsoumbas, in an interview on Thursday to ANT1 TV on the measures announced on Wednesday by Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis, said that when talking of tourism "the steam engine, as they call it, of the economy," it must be made clear that this refers to "certain large hotel owners and tourism groups, domestic and foreign that have intertwined interests, some businesses that are close to the average and those working in tourism, namely the people that work night and day and the self-employed, some small family businesses and small- and medium-sized enterprises."

Koutsoumbas said that "tourism's economic miracle was based on 16 forms of flexible labour relations, intensification of work, very low wages and no collective or only 10 pct of employees with collective labour agreements".

He said that the yardstick for his party's assessment of the measures announced by the prime minister will be "whether they protect those working in the sector, with all their rights, and whether they protect SMEs and family businesses."

KKE's leader said that the provocative tax breaks to big capital should stop and the government should make them pay.

He also said that it was important to think of the future and not repeat the same impasses, where the people must continuously pay dearly for the profits of the few and powerful."