A constantly improving economy means Greeks can look forward to better days, premier says

Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis told protothema.gr’s ‘Direct’ vidcast on Wednesday he was “determined to lead New Democracy and claim a third term as prime minister,” as long as Greek citizens express their confidence in the party again.

In an interview to journalist Giorgos Evgenidis, Mitsotakis also said that he would not discuss a change of electoral law, and did not intend to call snap elections, saying “our program is a four-year program, and you know very well that I mean what I say.”

The premier also confirmed that at the International Thessaloniki Fair in September and his annual policy speech there the part on tax cuts would focus on  more tax reduction for the middle class. Speaking of the announcements on Wednesday about support of tenants and low-income pensioners after

Greece registered a high primary surplus, Mitsotakis said the interventions were a result of difficult reforms. “These reforms have a nature of creating a lot of political reactions when they are implemented, but the benefits sometimes take a long time to show up. So here the benefits have shown up and we were able to return over 1 billion euros to Greek society and specific segments of it,” he underlined.

Speaking of rental subsidies, the PM noted that there was an extensive shadow economy in rentals and the government hoped to limit it in the property market, as it had done in the retail sector by linking POS card machines with cash registers. In general, he said, “As long as the economy is improving, all Greek citizens will be able to look forward to better days.”

Mitsotakis said a trip to Ankara had not been set yet, while he added that in terms of Greek-Turkish relations “I am not looking for a fight with Türkiye, nor do I think that I need to use a vocabulary of tension and rhetorical drama. In its foreign policy, Greece has always proceeded responsibly, remaining invariably focused on set principles of Greek foreign policy, yet exercising a diplomacy that has managed to make Greece stronger and, if I may say so, greater.”

He also underlined anew the importance of having tabled the National Spatial Strategy for Maritime Space at the European Union, while he also asserted that the project to link the power grids of Greece, Cyprus, and Israel is a European Union project that “will proceed at its own time.”

Commenting on the prospects of meeting with US President Donald Trump, the Greek premier said that “right now there is no sense of a timetable or any scheduled meeting.” He said that the strategic relationship with the United States is excellent and added that he planned to enhance it whenever such a meeting took place. At the same time, he noted, Greece will work hard to take advantage of the US moratorium on tariffs to reach a trade agreement that could benefit both sides, since “a trade war, especially as developing now, this tension, will be harmful for everybody.”
(File photo)

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