ATHENS – The 50-euro pay raise for minimum monthly salaries announced by Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis “is not even enough to pay electricity bills,” SYRIZA-Progressive Alliance said, following the premier’s televised address on Wednesday.

In a televised address, the premier said the raise will kick in on May 1.

“With a delay of three years and terrified by the public’s anger over the bills and the unprecedented spike in prices, and under the pressure of Syriza-PS, Mitsotakis announced hurriedly today a pay rise to minimum wage that is inadequate, given the reality,” the main opposition party said.

As Syriza asserted, when it was in rule it had “raised the wage by 11% in 2019 under negative inflation rates, and now Mr. Mitsotakis raises it by 7.7% with an inflation rate of over 9%,” the party said, “after having kept it stuck for three years and sharply reduced workers’ income with anti-labor regulations.” The increase, it said, “has already been negated by the unprecedented cost of living raises and ends up covering a minuscule segment of the workers’ reduction in their buying power.”

The party further claimed that the prime minister rushed to announce the raise “just so that MPs of New Democracy who are returning to their districts for Easter have something to say when they are facing angry citizens whose wages are gone [to bill-paying] by mid-month.” The government’s “collapse is now final and irreversible,” it added, stressing that when Syriza wins the elections it will raise minimum wage to 800 euros and undo the labor regulations introduced by this government.