“Actually, we are anxious, and we are trying and reacting. Targeted support measures will continue,” the prime minister said – “Let them know that every jurusi they invoke can turn into a vicious reverse to its starting point,” the message to Turkey
Kyriakos Mitsotakis speaks to the citizens of Crete and New Democracy officials in Heraklion, Crete.
Watch the Prime Minister’s speech:
The prime minister’s speech in more detail:
This is the vote of confidence that Crete is sending. Thank you from the bottom of my heart for such a warm welcome. Next time we will need a much bigger space. I have been in politics for many years, I have never seen such a gathering in Heraklion.
And today what I see convinces me that our goal is close. Let Crete be blue from end to end. We didn’t make it last time, we’ll make it now.
With the society united and the citizens freed from things that did not belong to them and proud in a homeland as strong and creative as ever. What was wanted in the 2019 elections was stabilization and retrenchment. Stability and sustainable growth are already being realized now.
As our first government term ends with its results becoming a passport for the second. I had said that we would reduce taxes and we reduced more than 50 taxes and contributions. I promised more jobs and investment and we created 300,000 new jobs. I promised a stronger homeland and we have it with our raffles, vibers, bellaras and alliances. Through the digital state we have already processed 1.2 billion automatic transactions, instead of the hassle of queuing.
This is the Greece of the future that I promised you and we are making it happen. A Greece in which the obvious is not asked for, with pensions that are finally issued on time, with kindergartens from the age of 4, with model schools and vocational high schools, with universities that belong to the students and not to the squatters. After 42 months I can look you in the eye and say, yes, we said it and we did it.
In the face of all that happened to us, the economy and society remained standing thanks to a support program that exceeded 50 billion euros in total. The entrepreneurs who got a refundable advance, our vulnerable fellow citizens, know this. It would be a convenient alibi for someone to hide behind the successive obstacles that bent even the most powerful states. While we turned difficulties into opportunities, we did not deviate from what we promised. It is something that all our Greeks recognize. This is a trust account. Of course, there are mistakes and failures. They exist to be corrected and overcome. When you identify how you went wrong, you can turn weaknesses into positive opportunities. This means forging a contract of trust and honesty with the citizen. It is important to know where we want to go but also to weigh where we started from.
First observation, the image of the national economy. Today, Greece records one of the highest growth rates in Europe. It has achieved the most significant reduction in debt, it is moving outside of any supervisory framework, it is making record investments, it is making record exports, while unemployment today has fallen to 11.4% and today it will be in the single digits.
We are one step away from investment grade recovery, it matters to all of us. You know better that all Greeks pay less taxes, lower ENFIA and lower contributions. The solidarity levy was abolished. In some of our interventions we went above and beyond our pre-election program. At the end of the month, pensioners will see, those who do not have a personal difference, for the first time better wages after 12 years. On April 1st, we will have our 3rd major increase in the minimum wage and it will not be an April Fools joke. These are the results of our selection. To increase the public wealth and return it to the citizen.
I am not saying that we have solved all the problems of the NHS, but here in Crete you know that we have welcomed 1893 new health professionals and soon new nurses will arrive. In Crete alone, 2689 teachers and professors came as permanent staff.
The big problem is none other than precision, the imported wave that besieges the finances of every household. Many of our fellow citizens are struggling. Against this threat we have raised and will continue to raise more and more ramparts. I believe that even the most pessimistic cannot but admit that we compensated for the increases in electricity, we avoided the worst.
Energy producers and their surplus profits funded the subsidies. We know there is a food problem. The household basket is an important tool. The official opposition is questioning the household basket and President Macron in France is preparing to copy it and do the same. The market pass is coming in February. We will practically fully absorb inflationary increases in basic necessities.
I neither can nor want to make things beautiful. In fact, we worry, and we try, and we react. Targeted support measures will continue.
The defense of our homeland is of particular importance. Without national sovereignty there is no economic prosperity. I’ll repeat what I said on Tanagra unproviding the fifth f16 viber. Greece is today as strong and proud as ever. And those who easily boast that they may visit us one night suddenly, know that they may wake up one night suddenly and land in harsh reality. And let them learn that any yurushi they invoke can be turned into a mischievous reverse to its starting point.
We do not open a dialogue with the absurd. But our country is open to legality, logic, good neighborly relations, international law, the law of the sea. In international law we based our defense alliance with France and the USA. 2 weeks ago I was in Alexandroupolis. Today, for the first time after 10 years, Greece is exploiting the energy wealth of its seabed. It is an answer to those who told us that there are no sea borders. Today we are shamelessly told that the fence violates international legality. They are the same ones who still haven’t apologized for defaming the country with alleged victims, little Maria, all lies. It is unfortunately the same sad exceptions that have voted against our national equipment.
It is no longer an elusive dream. Today I visited the first active construction site of BOAK. The project is done in three parts. It is a road whose importance I cannot overestimate. You all know the tragedies we live through. BOAK is the largest motorway under construction in Europe.
The airport in Kastelli is the largest construction site in our country. The works already reach 20% and at the same time the studies for the utilization of the existing airport are progressing. What happened with Greek will not be repeated. The moment the airport leaves, the exploitation of the 3000 acres will begin.
I too wish we had run longer, but for both we caught the thread from far behind. At BOAK we received absolutely nothing but a drawing on the map.
Now the implementation has started. A large part of the funding is from the Recovery Fund.
Crete has the potential to become a hub for attracting students not only from Greece but from the whole world. If Cyprus succeeded, why can’t Crete succeed in our public universities.
We have a student housing problem. 255 million to build two new student residences in Chania and Heraklion. Also 8 new schools and almost 100m will go to the Marine Research Center and the Technology and Research Foundation.
Two waste processing units, many cultural activities, the new museum in Chania is a jewel, the regeneration of Phaistos.
I have given only a few nuggets of the overall plan. It is a road map of Crete 2030 in Greece 2030.
Greece is changing and Crete is changing. If the commitment of our first government term was less taxes, the big bet of the second one will be better wages, decent health and the care of the new generation.
By 1.1.2024, the payroll of civil servants will have been reformed. We want the private sector to have additional incentives. It is not possible for businessmen to prosper and the workers not to prosper.
A year ago, on the occasion of the tragic death of F. Gennimata, I announced a program named after her for breast cancer screenings. 75,000 have made use of this feature. In more than 4500 finds were identified. 125 women were found on our island. They didn’t know him and now this disease can be treated at an early stage with a very good prognosis. This is how we save lives. This is what all serious advanced nations do.
After a lot of work, we have now voted for the “My Home” program for young people. We are establishing soft loans so that a young person can buy a home by paying off the principal with the same money they would pay in rent. We give you incentives to be able to renovate houses that are foreclosed.
Patriotism of responsibility and modernization of progress becomes our message. We will meet everyone without discrimination. As Konstantinos Mitsotakis used to say, Eleftherios Venizelos was the first to speak about liberal ideas and they have no upper limit. These are ideas expressed by our great faction, the ND. We march to the polls with the enthusiasm that arises from our work.
After all, the great Cretan Nikos Kazantzakis had said it before me. There is here in Crete, an indomitable flame, let’s call it a soul. Pride, stubbornness, boyishness? Hard to define. All this together. I appeal to this indomitable flame called the Cretan soul, asking it to spread throughout the country. Onward to the struggle for a second command in progress and preemption.
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I have worked in the news industry for over 10 years. I have been an author at News Bulletin 247 for the past 2 years. I mostly cover politics news. I am a highly experienced and respected journalist. I have won numerous awards for my work.
