“It is symbolic but also very essential that the first bill that we are called to vote on, as a new parliament, concerns the lifting of all restrictions and the possibility of our fellow citizens who live abroad to participate in national, European and national elections. elections” said Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis during his visit to the Ministry of the Interior.

“As you know, in order to pass this bill based on the Constitution, 200 deputies are needed. I believe that we will be able to achieve this increased majority, because it would be extremely strange for parties that supported this initiative when it was first presented, in the previous Parliament, to change their position at this moment” he added, emphasizing that the first bill has a special symbolic value which will be voted to essentially concern the full political integration of the Greek diaspora in our electoral procedures.

The Prime Minister said that he is optimistic that the target of 200 MPs can be reached so that this intervention can effectively take effect from the European elections.

He also mentioned that the reform of the state is a central goal of the new administration and will come to build, as he typically said, on the very important initiatives that were implemented in the previous four years. In addition, he stated that a central priority is the clarification of responsibilities between the state in its central and decentralized form, regions and municipalities.

“We will work a lot on the issues that have to do with public personnel, with our civil servants, who must know that they are evaluated primarily in order to reward the work they do” said Kyriakos Mitsotakis, underlining that the commitment of government for the recruitment of 10,000 new workers in the health sector, is in full force and will begin to be implemented immediately.

In his statement, the prime minister said:

“I am very happy, Madam Minister, Mr. Deputy, Madam and Mr. Deputy Minister, that today I am visiting a Ministry which is extremely familiar to me and I want to endorse the position of the Madam Minister, that the reform of the state is a central objective of our new government and will come to build on the very important initiatives that we implemented in the previous four years.

We have set extremely ambitious goals, which always have her at the center better service to the citizen by the state. Whether we are talking about the central state, whether we are talking about the decentralized administrations, whether we are talking about the Regions, or whether we are talking about the Municipalities, our focus is always on the citizen and the provision of the best possible and highest quality services by the state in all its the appearances.

We recognize, of course, at the same time that we have to deal with dysfunctions that come from the past, mainly in terms of the speed of implementation of decisions that have to do with recruitment in the state, and we are already working very systematically in this direction.

And of course, we have set as a central priority the implementation of what we call new multi-level governance, which is nothing more than the clarification of responsibilities between the state in its centralized and decentralized form, the Regions and the Municipalities. The Deputy Minister is already working hard in this direction.

From there, we will work a lot on the issues that have to do with public personnel, with our public servants, who need to know that they are evaluated first and foremost in order to reward the work that they do.

That is why I insist very much on innovative ideas that we have already started to implement, such as productivity bonuses and the connection of the measurable result with the reward of either the employee himself or the team that achieves specific goals that will be set by the policy leadership.

And of course, let me repeat what the Minister said: it is symbolic but also very essential that the first bill that we are called to vote on, as a new Parliament, concerns the lifting of all restrictions and the possibility of our fellow citizens who live abroad to participate in national elections, European elections and national elections.

As you know, in order to pass this bill based on the Constitution, 200 MPs are needed. I believe that we will be able to achieve this increased majority, because it would be extremely strange for parties that supported this initiative when it was first presented, in the previous Parliament, to change their position at this time.

I do not believe that this will eventually happen and the first bill that we will vote on will have a special symbolic value that essentially concerns the full political integration of the Greek diaspora in our electoral procedures.

We will, of course, have the opportunity to discuss all of this in the Parliament in the coming weeks, but I remain optimistic that we can achieve the goal of 200 MPs, so that this intervention will effectively take effect from the European elections which will be held early next year summer.

I wish good strength to the team of the Ministry. I would like to emphasize separately the great importance we attach to the issues of Macedonia and Thrace, which is why we keep – I would say – this Deputy Ministry strengthened, with specific responsibilities that also concern the monitoring of the development plans of the three Regions that fall under the responsibility of the Ministry.

From then on, we will be in regular communication to be able to monitor the progress of this very important project.

I remind you that in September we will present the annual recruitment planning. I repeat that the recruitments all go through this central planning, which actually forces us sometimes to become a little unpleasant, because we have to make central political priorities.

But our main commitments, first and foremost the recruitment of 10,000 new workers in the health sector, are in full force and will begin to be implemented immediately.”