The government on Tuesday rubbished remarks by Disy MP Onoufrios Koullas, saying he was intentionally trying to mislead public opinion regarding multiple pensions awarded to officials, especially in relation to the president.

In a written statement, director of the president’s press office Victoras Papadopoulos said Koullas had followed his “favourite tactic” and made “false and misleading remarks” concerning the bill proposed by the government to regulate the pensions of state officials.

Papadopoulos clarified that if Nikos Christodoulides was re-elected president he would not receive a pension for his first term, on top of a lump sum for the same term, while being paid the president’s salary during his second term.

“Nothing could be further from the truth,” Papadopoulos said and accused Koullas of “deliberately trying to mislead and create impressions against the president of the Republic”.

Papadopoulos said that if Koullas had bothered to read the bill and had contacted the Treasury, he would know that the president would not receive a lump sum if re-elected, nor would he receive a pension for his first term.

He explained that in case of re-election, the next term is considered to be consecutive, adding that this applied for all officials.

Papadopoulos said the bill presented to the House did not provide for any other arrangement either.

“Thus, the unfounded allegations made by Mr Koullas have the sole aim of harming the president of the Republic,” he said.

“What matters to society is that the government dared to bring a legislative regulation before the House of Representatives to terminate a long-standing distortion which, according to the Law Office, is in line with the existing constitutional provisions and constitutional restrictions, and this proposal permanently abolishes life-long pensions,” Papadopoulos said.

He added that the government “reiterates its readiness, in the framework of constitutional provisions, to discuss any proposals on the bill, with the aim of permanently solving the issue the soonest possible.”

Koullas replied by saying he had just been voicing remarks by the Law Office and the finance ministry and that if the government really wanted to “dare”, it should have started by cutting benefits from itself.

“But how could this happen when the president himself has been receiving a pension since the age of 45,” Koullas asked.

He added that Papadopoulos could continue to hammer a single MP, if he so wished, with generalisations and expressions.

On Monday, Koullas had said the bill “came as a surprise” and was “provocative”.

He said it benefited the president and his ministers, as well as long-term MPs and other officials, and that there should be “at least some transitionary and gradual” reduction.

Koullas said on Monday that unfortunately there was no regulation for pensions, such as those of the president and ministers, “not even a voluntary cut”.

He referred to other proposed bills that regulated the issue in a fair manner, inter alia by forbidding a pension to be paid along with a salary.

Ruling and opposition MPs on Monday both criticised a government bill that aspired to regulate the issue of multiple pensions for officials during a House finance committee meeting.