Kyriakos Mitsotakis’ account of the actions of the government in 2022

The Prime Minister, Kyriakos Mitsotakis, gave his account of the measures taken by the government in 2022, through his post on Facebook

The prime minister referred to the minimum wage, the increases and the programs that were announced:

“Usually on Sundays we do a (I know, not very short!) review of the past week. But today, as we leave the holiday season behind us, I’d like to share with you what I selectively highlight from what happened in 2022.

I will try to be as brief as I can, and of course I do not intend to write to you about all the events of 2022, since I do not think I have the right to abuse your time to such an extent. That is why I will not dwell on the economic indicators, in which Greece’s performance is the positive surprise in Europe, but I will focus more on the policies in favor of young people, women and young families, on the effort we are making to change the lives of citizens for the better. I really hope you find it interesting.

I want to start with our initiatives for young workers.

Youth unemployment was one of the major problems created by the ten-year crisis. It is important that we do everything we can to help the new generation start their working lives.

The “first badge” we voted for in 2021 and premiered in 2022 is aimed at young people aged 18-29 who have no previous experience of dependent work, and aims to help them find their first job. With the “first badge”, each new position with a full-time contract is subsidized with 3,600 euros for the first semester. Of these, 1,800 euros are paid by the state directly to the newly hired, boosting their income, while 1,800 euros are paid to the employer to cover part of the salary expense.

The increase in the minimum wage and the “personal piggy bank”

We also had the double increase in the minimum wage, which will be followed by a third increase this year in April.

Another “revolutionary self-evident” that happened in 2022 was the implementation from the summer of the digital work card, starting with large companies, with the aim of putting a brake on the evasion of hours and unpaid overtime.

In 2022, the introduction of reciprocity in supplementary pensions also began, i.e. the creation of the “individual piggy bank” for every new insured person who enters the labor market from 2022 onwards.

This is a revolutionary change for our country, which ensures higher and guaranteed pensions, and gives the insured people control over their pension. 150,000 young people who have found a job for the first time have already registered with TEKA, who now know that their own contributions are financing their own pension.

I will stay on the topic of employment, highlighting the excellent results of the transformation of the former OAED into a modern employment organization. The Public Employment Service, as it is now called, is no longer a “benefits agency” but empowers the unemployed with new skills, provides job training through partnerships with companies such as Microsoft, Amazon, Cisco and Google, rewards those who genuinely seek work, while in 2022 it offered 95,000 job opportunities.

At the same time, through “Greece 2.0”, the largest training program for workers and unemployed that has ever been carried out in Greece was launched. In total, it has a budget of 1 billion euros and concerns the training of 500,000 citizens in digital and green skills.

The “My Home” program and education reforms

In 2022 we also instituted the “My Home” program, with a total of 140,000 beneficiaries up to the age of 39 and our economically vulnerable fellow citizens, as a relief against expensive rents and high property prices. After all, affordable housing is one of our priorities for 2023 as well.

In the field of education, it is worth noting that model and experimental schools in 2022 reached 120 (in 2019 it was only 60), and today 30,000 of our students attend quality, public, free educational structures that promote excellence and educational innovation.

We also strengthened vocational training with a focus on high-demand sectors. We established 24 Standard EPAL, 15 Experimental Public IEK and 10 Thematic Public IEK.

Also, we extended the All-Day School to the Kindergarten and Elementary School, so that it ends at 5:30 PM instead of 4:00 PM with optional participation. I believe that, together with universal two-year pre-school education from the age of 4, the increase in nursery vouchers, “neighborhood nannies” and the 120 new nurseries in businesses, we are gradually spreading a net of support for working parents, primarily working women which it is true bears the heaviest burden in the family. And of course, this year we extended the duration of the special maternity protection leave from 6 to 9 months.

Violence in the home

We have been very concerned about domestic and gender-based violence, and we have taken many steps to combat it: We have increased the Police’s operational domestic violence offices, we have included sex education programs in schools, we have tightened the penalties in the criminal code, we have put in place a useful risk assessment tool, the panic button, the work and legal support of the victims as well as the plan for dealing with the sexual abuse of minors. We encouraged the victims to break their silence and it is indicative that in the first ten months of 2022, 9,192 calls were made to 15900 and 9,515 to ELAS – almost twice as many as those made in the first 12 months of 2019. Society is now speaking and this is particularly positive.

One year of operation also counts for the “Children’s House”. It is a specially designed area where children who have been victims of serious crimes can testify in a safe and friendly environment. The examination is carried out by a specially trained psychologist and according to international standards, a practice that reduces the possibility of needing more interviews from the already traumatized child.

The “battle” for pensions and the “Fofi Gennimata” program

Of the government’s actions in the past year, one of the most important for me was the clearing of all outstanding principal pensions. It was the obvious thing that hadn’t been done for many years. We owed it to our pensioners, who had to wait an average of 1.5 years (!) to get their pension.

It is, I hope, a step to rebuild the relationship of trust between state and citizen. So that every citizen knows that the state respects him. Today, therefore, new applications are issued in just 2 months, while within 2023 all outstanding supplementary pensions will be cleared.

In 2022, the first major screening program “Fofi Gennimata” for breast cancer was launched. Until 2022 Greece had no population screening program. With the “Fofi Gennimata” Program, for the first time the state comes to the citizen and urges him to do the examination, while greatly facilitating the appointment process since the mammogram can be done in public or private structures.

Today, more than 4,000 women have been diagnosed early and are already receiving treatment. For these women, this appointment may have saved their lives.

And this is just one of the 4 screening programs of our “Spyros Doxiadis” initiative that are implemented for the first time, with funding of 300 million euros from the Recovery Fund.

Shielding the NHS is our highest priority and program goal for 2023. In 2022, therefore, the recruitment of 6,000 health professionals was approved. We also proceeded with wage increases for the NHS doctors as well as the ICU and ER workers, who were the first line of defense during the pandemic and we will never forget the battle they fought.

“2022 a year full of challenges but also steps of progress”

2022 was also a year of support for our fellow citizens with disabilities. We abolished the review obligation for people with irreversible diseases, established the personal assistant for 2,000 PWDs, created the Digital KEPA for the electronic certification of disability and implemented the Digital Dignity Card – a constant demand of the disability movement – as proof for all without exception public services, without our disabled fellow citizens constantly looking for new disability certificates for every contact with the State. Let’s be honest: It was an infuriating and insulting ordeal.

I will close with something a little different: our effort to make Greece an attractive destination for international television and film producers. We have increased EKOME’s funding program for the production of films, TV series and documentaries, and simplified their selection framework. This policy is a practical underpinning of modern civilization – and it has already made a difference:

Last year alone we had 200 productions in Greece, including television and film productions from major Hollywood studios. However, what makes us particularly happy is that the support of the state and through the Greek Cypriot Association helped to create exportable Greek content on foreign networks. Two TV series – Maestro and Silent Road – and three films – The Waiter, Monday, Magnetic Fields – have been acquired and will be shown by popular platforms such as Netflix, HULU and HBO Max.

I think I already wrote a lot. 2022 was a year full of challenges but also steps of progress for our country. We all know how many things we would like to see improved in the functioning of the state. Each of you will have complaints, ideas, problems that the state should solve. So at the end of the day, it’s not what we’ve already done that sticks in my mind – it’s the much that still needs to be done. That’s why we work every day.

I took the photo that accompanies this lengthy text on my way back from Gavdos, which I visited on Epiphany. It is the imposing White Mountains of Crete as seen above the clouds. A small reminder of the beauty of our homeland.

Thank you for your time and I hope you have a very nice Sunday!”.

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