Compensation of Greek President to Be Cut into Half: Just €11,561/Month

Posted by keeptalkinggreece

The monthly compensation a Greek President receives will be cut into half. With decision of the finance ministry and effect from September 1st 2012,  the monthly compensation of a Greek president will be 11,561 euro.

After the cut,  he monthly compensation for the President is be equal to twice the salary of member of the parliament. i.e. from 23,122 euro down to 11,561 euro. Respectively one can assure the monthly salary for MPs is 5,780 euro plus expenses and office operation costs.

At the same time, the finance ministry suspends the payment of expenses for the president, the parliament speaker, the prime minister, the members of the cabinet and the leader of the opposition.
State broadcaster ERT wrote that the President’s monthly expenses compensation (without office operation cost etc) were 6,240 euro per month.

Adding the 13th and 14th salary (Christmas/Eastern/Holiday bonus) without the expenses the Greek President used to receive 322,000 euro.
In comparison US President Barack Obama has an annual salary of 450,000 $ (more or less 320,000).
Nevertheless, “the total saving from Presidential compensation cut will be 352,360 euro” write the Greek media.
The proposal to cut the president’s compensation came by the President himself Karolos Papoulias some weeks ago. He waived his compensation already since last February.
However as Greeks have mutated into a really mean folk, Proto Thema  added

“Reducing of monthly compensation for the President, it will affect also the monthly compensations for former Presidents of the Republic.”

Does this mean that two or three former presidents have been also receiving 23,122 euro plus expenses month in, month out? For being ex-presidents? I thought, they were getting several pensions, but compensations? For what?
Someone proposed the compensations for leading politicians, members of the cabinet and of the parliament should be calculated on the basis of the minimum wage. Quite true. Then a new elected MP has the same skills to ‘govern’ as an unskilled worker in a factory or a pizza delivery. Independently of whether they have university diploma or absolved the just obligatory education of 15 years. 5-8-0 euro per month gross.