The Cabinet on Monday was considering the final text for a draft law that allocate 2,000 euros for every birth to eligible households, with an income criteria reportedly set at 70,000 euros annually.
The Mitsotakis government has announced that the financial bonus will be one of several to overturn a demographic slide in the eastern Mediterranean country.
Additionally, a so-called “social dividend” will again be allocated at the end of the year, with some 300,000 households expected to receive the welfare payment. The total allocated sum is 215 million euros, and comes from the excess amount above the annual primary budget surplus that the Greek state must achieve until 2022.
The “social dividend” bonus was first doled out by the leftist Tsipras government in 2017, although almost triple in value and to many more households. The first such bonus, in fact, was allocated to pensioners, but without income or asset criteria.
Regarding a closely scrutinized draft bill restricting street protests in the center of Athens, PM Kyriakos Mitsotakis himself reportedly told Cabinet members that “we must protect society under a primary message, one being that a street cannot be blocked off by 50 people…Society backs such policies, and that is why this legislation deals with respect to public places.”
Provisions in the draft bill would reportedly restrict protesters in smaller rallies to the sidewalks.
Additionally, each protest or rally will have to have at least one person who is tasked with communicating with a high-ranking police officer at the scene. Protest/rallies will have to be declared in advance to police by the aforementioned person.
Finally, an independent prosecutor will be present at the protest/rally to ensure legality, by both protestors and police authorities.
