The idea is truly innovative: subsidize taxis so that weekend drunks do not drive home with their own car and get killed in traffic accidents οn the roads of Greece. A drunk-pass, so to say.
Alternate Transport Minister Konstantinos Kyranakis spit out his idea on Sunday in an interview with ANT1 TV arguing that a decreased taxi fare on Friday, Saturday and Sunday will make it safer for drunks to return home.
The Minister’s proposal triggered an outrage on social media with users to meet it with scorn and an outcry among taxi owners and drivers with their union threatening with a 48-hour strike next week.
Greeks’ reactions
Greeks immediately found a name for the subsidy calling it “Drunk-Pass” inspired by the many “passes” the conservative government of Kyriakos Mitsotakis handed out to citizens during the Covid-pandemic.
Then they accused the government of “subsidizing the consumption of alcohol and drunkenness.”
The majority of social media users proposed the extended operation of public transport means over the weekend: Throughout the night on Friday, Saturday and Sunday.
Traffic accident in the early morning hours of April 6, 2025 in Agrionio, western Greece. 26-year-old driver and 22-year-old passenger seriously injured.
Many suggested radical measures with strictest traffic controls and very heavy fines including the revoke of driving license for ever! The problem with car accidents where drunk youth get killed or seriously injured in Greece has reached alarming levels and is something that does not concern only the Greek capital Athens or other big cities such as Thessaloniki, Patras and Heraklio.
Η λύση για αυτούς που οδηγούν πιωμένοι:Τους παίρνεις αμάξι και δίπλωμα για 6 μήνες.Δεύτερη φορά κατάσχεση.Θα πάρει ταξί από μόνος του.Αν δεν πάρει τρίτη φορά μέσα.
— Miltiadis Benakis (@BenakisM) May 6, 2025
“For those who drive drunk: you get their car and license for 6 months. Second time? You seize them.He will take a taxi on his own. If he gets caught a third time … send them behind bars.”
Government Playground
Speaking with ANT1 TV, 38-year-old Minister Kyranakis focused mostly on “young people who go out and party but then go and drive and get killed.”
Despite the reactions, the minister appeared on ONE TV on Monday evening insisting on taxis and drunks.
“The government’s goal is to keep people who have consumed alcohol from getting behind the wheel. We must examine such measures. I call on taxi drivers to come to the table and discuss measures that will save lives,” he claimed.
He added that he does not know how the decreased taxi fare will be subsidize and what the final price will be.
To add even more levity to the whole ridiculousness, government spokesman Pavlos Marinakis clarified to Real FM on Tuesday morning that “this will not happen. We will not do something like that. We will not proceed with such a measure. It was a thought… The Greek taxpayer will not pay. After all, no one will be subsidized to drink.”
A few hours later, the chairman of the SATA Taxi Union in Athens, Thymios Lymberopoulos, added his own sauce to the issue saying furiously to Parapolitika FM: “I don’t understand why he said that, does he want to subsidize and promote alcohol to young people? If it’s possible for a minister to say that, these problems are solved with a subsidy? He makes fun of the word subsidy.”
Quoting the proverb “the madman saw the drunk and left” Lymperopoulos listed a few examples of his experience with drunk passengers, some of them ending tragically, but mostly he complained about drunk passengers vomiting in the taxis.
So far and despite the furore, there is no official government statement on the controversial proposal of Minister Kyranakis, such issues are usually be handled at the daily media briefing by the government spokesman. As long as the government does not give a serious response KTG will assume that it is not off the table.
In this sense, the minister-kids can keep playing on the government playground.
POLL: What do you thing? Should the Government subsidize a “Drunk- Pass?
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