Mitsotakis: The fight for the protection of democracy from its enemies is continuous

Presenting the weekly report of the government’s work, the prime minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis states in his Facebook post:

“It was a difficult, a hard week that passed. The sadness of the loss of our two pilots, two young people who fell in the line of duty, permeated the whole society. Our respect for them and their families is boundless. Words are poor and I don’t want to write more about it because I believe we feel the same gratitude and the same awe for these people who give their lives to defend the Motherland. It’s a feeling that unites us – I don’t need to describe it.

But let me describe to you some of the things that went on during the week, which I hope will be of interest to you.

I will start with the bill to prevent and deal with school violence and school bullying which was approved by the cabinet last Thursday.

In recent years, we have taken several initiatives to support students and give teachers tools to deal with incidents of school violence and bullying. For example: we have doubled the number of psychologists and social workers in schools, we have instituted the school life counselor in secondary education and we have proceeded with the training of 125,000 teachers on this subject. We have also introduced skills workshops from kindergarten to high school, which include topics on sex education, human rights, and the cultivation of mutual respect.

The new bill essentially complements these initiatives, creating intra-school teams in which specialists will participate to deal with school violence, but also by introducing a special platform where students can report such incidents of violence and bullying, with the possibility of they also do anonymously if they choose.

From the small ages I will pass to the older ones, to tell you about the “3rd e-age” – an action that started as a pilot last June in the municipality of Kavala and the municipality of Florina, and is now expanding to the municipalities of Athens, Ioannito and Thermaikos. What is this action aimed at? In strengthening the digital skills of citizens who are over 60, with training from specially trained Digital Assistants, who guide older citizens to familiarize themselves with the digital world and digital services of the public and private sectors. An action that will help our fellow citizens to get to know and be able to move with comfort and confidence in the digital world and take advantage of all these services that make our lives easier.

One more thing that concerns our older fellow citizens – the outstanding supplementary pensions. Our aim is to provide a solution with a fast track process – the same model that we followed to put an end to the shame of pending main pensions. But for those who are still waiting for their supplementary pension to be issued, they will receive an advance payment of 100 euros for each month of delay if it is a supplementary pension due to old age, and 50 euros for supplementary pensions due to disability or death. They don’t need to take any action, the money will be in their account by March 15th. To put it simply: if someone who meets all the conditions waits a year for their supplementary old-age pension, they will collect €1,200.

This week we had a very positive news, which is one of those that we wish was not even news, but everyday: Evangelismos, the largest hospital in Attica, as of last Tuesday, has completed on-call duty without a ranch. Henceforth, this will be the rule, not the exception. This was done after an agreement between the Ministries of Health and National Defense, for the co-pastoral of Evangelismos and NIMTS – that is, NIMTS allocated beds for the needs of hospitalization of cases that are transported through EKAB.

In this way, we want to eliminate ranches in other large hospitals as well (we want to in all of them, but I will tell you now about the ones that are going forward immediately). In the coming days, “Attiko”, which really has the biggest problem with ranches, will be assisted by the private clinic “Iatriko Peristeriou”, while “Laiko” and “Gennimata” will be assisted by NIMTS, the ” Pammakaristo” and “Erikos Dunan”. And I want to emphasize this: at absolutely no cost to the patients. We don’t turn a blind eye to problems. We are trying to find solutions. In other words, let’s do what we must.

On Wednesday, together with the President of the Republic of Cyprus, Nikos Anastasiadis, we visited the “Memorial Park” that is being created in Mati, as a tribute to the victims of the deadly fire. But it will also be the largest park in Eastern Attica, 130 acres, a green space, sports and recreation for the residents of the area, with infrastructure for families, children, the elderly and people with disabilities.

The implementation of this project is done with the donation of the Republic of Cyprus. And I had the opportunity to convey our thanks to President Anastasiades on behalf of the Greek people. Thanks to the donation of the Republic of Cyprus, the construction of a modern social housing complex with approximately 100 apartments is in the final stretch.

I’m continuing with one more project – but this one has been discussed and planned since 2005 – 18 whole years! Today it is finally on track for implementation. I am talking about the road axis “Ioannina – Kalpaki – Kakavia”, for the construction of which the tender was announced this week. It is a project of national importance that will connect the capital of the Epirus Region with Albania, with the wider region of Western Macedonia and with the Western Balkans, ensure access to the Ionian Sea and bring areas out of isolation.

I will close with two pieces of good news.

The first piece of good news is Transparency International’s annual report for 2022, which shows that, among 31 European countries, compared to 2018, Greece has seen the greatest improvement in the ranking of the Corruption Perceptions Index. We went from 67th to 51st globally out of 180 countries. And we achieved this by digitizing and automating processes, which limit the risk of corruption in citizens’ dealings with the state, but also by promoting to positions of responsibility those – men and women – who really deserve it, through the targeting and evaluation of public servants .

The second piece of good news is the Economist Intelligence Unit’s report for 2022, which shows that Greece has moved up 9 places in the so-called “democracy index”. For 2022, Greece is ranked 25th, up from 34th in 2021 and 39th in 2018.

Clearly, we must and can do even better in the coming years to further improve the quality of the institutions and Democracy in our country.

The struggle for a better democracy but also for its protection from its enemies is continuous. And this is the purpose of the provision that we tabled in the Parliament this week, which stipulates that groups whose essential leader is someone who has been convicted as a criminal cannot participate in the electoral process. Similar provisions are already in force in several European countries. I want to point out that it does not aim to exclude ideas, but aims to protect normality and constitutional freedoms. And I really hope it gets support from all parties. Let’s at least agree on this.

With this appeal, and hoping that I have not tired you too much, I will thank you for the time you have devoted to this post.”

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