Mitsotakis: Emotion and pride for EMAK – The peoples of Greece and Turkey are friends

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Afterwards, Mr. Mitsotakis referred to the progress of the government project

Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis began the regular weekly review of the government’s work with his thanks to the EMAK men who are operating in the earthquake-stricken areas of Turkey under such adverse conditions and filled us with pride.

As Mr. Mitsotakis notes at the beginning of his message, “a big thank you to the EMAK men who are operating in the earthquake-stricken regions of Turkey under such adverse conditions. We were all moved when we saw them take out of the ruins of the apartment buildings, alive, 5 people – three children, a 20-year-old girl and a 50-year-old man.”

At the same time, he points out that “as I told President Erdogan, in this hour of need and suffering we are here for whatever help they need. We may have political differences, but the people of Greece and Turkey are friends”, noting that from the first moment our country hastened to “put the capabilities of the Greek state at the disposal of the authorities of the neighboring country”.

Mr. Mitsotakis then referred to the severe weather that hit in the previous days and the measures taken by the government, the free digital application available to farmers, the MyHeathApp application, the program to create baby care spaces in companies, the salary of the Armed Forces executives but also the large international companies that are reactivating in Greece.

“Because we all now understand the overall profit that society has when the economy is attractive for investment, when it produces, when it creates jobs. And we’re still only at the beginning. Because Greece’s potential is enormous. In the last 4 years we have started to unlock them, and we will continue to do so as long as we have the trust of the citizens”, says Mr. Mitsotakis to his online friends and concludes: “With this promise, I will thank you warmly for your time you and I wish you a very beautiful Sunday”.

In detail, the post of the Prime Minister:

“I want to start our Sunday meeting with a big thank you to the EMAK men who are operating in the earthquake-stricken regions of Turkey under such adverse conditions. We were all moved when we saw them pull 5 people alive from the ruins of the apartment buildings – three children, a 20-year-old girl and a 50-year-old man. And they filled us with pride. But also self-evident deep sadness for the magnitude of the disaster. We often say “Biblical disaster”, but that is the only way to describe the magnitude of what we are seeing.
Our country did the obvious, as it did in 1999, and as we will always do. We rushed from the first moment to put the capabilities of the Greek state at the disposal of the authorities of the neighboring country. As I told President Erdogan, in this hour of need and suffering we are here for whatever help they need. We may have political differences, but the people of Greece and Turkey are friends. And this is proven by the wave of support that has manifested itself throughout the country.

Natural disasters always remind us of the responsibility of the organized state to the citizens. The responsibility to fortify our infrastructure and invest in the structures and people of Civil Protection. We have done this since day one. Let me give you just one illustrative example: the General Secretariat of Civil Protection, when we took over, was operating with public service hours – that is, Monday to Friday, from 7:00 a.m. to 3:00 p.m. Today it operates 24 hours a day, in a new state-of-the-art building, making use of technology to provide immediate information so that there is an immediate reaction. But of course, it is not enough to react quickly – there must also be preventive action, but also to learn from your mistakes.

And let me explain: This year DEDDIE increased by 70% the clearing of trees around stations, and by 50% the investments in network upgrading. That is why during the severe bad weather that hit central Greece and Attica, the faults in the electrical network were less than 90. Last year with “Elpida” it was 200-250 in the medium voltage and over 400 in the low voltage, while in 2021 with “Medea” they had reached 1200 faults in medium voltage and at least 1500 in low voltage. Of course I also heard the argument that we took a lot of measures in view of the snow. But I would like to ask you: isn’t it better to have a proactive state than to have an absent state apparatus?

However, it seems that the climate crisis will create more and more frequent extreme weather phenomena. On the occasion of the frost of the days, I want to remind you that now the farmers they have at their disposal a free digital application that notifies them in time – three days before – of an upcoming frost, so that they can take their measures. The application is available in the “cloud” of the Ministry of Digital Governance and by the end of the month it will be ready for mobile operation.

But if I had to single out one digital service, from the hundreds that today facilitate the daily life of citizens, it would be the digital patient file. It was something that seemed unimaginable, but today it is a reality through the application MyHeathApp, which is constantly enriched with new services. It started with medical referrals and digital appointments with a personal doctor, and this week added 431 lab tests and hospital certificates. These are provided digitally by 59 public hospitals – almost half of them – as well as private diagnostic centres.

This means that every citizen as well as the attending physician, with one click, will have access to our entire medical history so that he can make the best possible diagnosis. It is a project that, in combination with other projects of digital upgrading and interconnection of our hospitals and health centers, we aspire to change for the better the face of the NHS and the experience of citizens by 2027.

This week also started the program for the creation of care spaces of infants in 120 businesses. The existence of such spaces in businesses is widespread abroad, and it is time to do so in Greece, as it greatly facilitates working parents. It is one of many initiatives we have taken to support family and employment for new parents, and is funded by the Recovery Fund.

This week the decision to upgrade and expand the infrastructure of the Hellenic Pasteur Institute was signed, an action with a budget of 25 million euros that is also financed by the Recovery Fund. Two “green” buildings with state-of-the-art laboratories will be constructed, and a Center of Excellence for Emerging and Re-emerging Pathogens Research will be established.

We had two important pieces of news this week from the House. The first concerns the career, health issues and salary issues of the Armed Forces executives. Because we recognize that the salaries of ED executives are still at low levels in relation to the mission they perform, in addition to what was voted, there will also be an adjusted special salary from 1/1/2024.

The second piece of news was the amendment intended to shield democratic order and protect it from criminal organizations. It is not aimed at blocking ideas, but at guarding the democratic constitutional order. And it is really very sad that not all parties were aligned to this goal.

I will close with two pieces of good news, related to the strengthening of productive activity in the region. 6 years ago, PepsiCo Hellas closed the factory in Inofyta and moved the production to Romania. Today, part of this production returns to Greece, at EPSA’s facilities in Volos. At the same time, in Sindos, at the production unit of the Olympic Brewery, the production of the most famous product of the Danish giant Carlsberg begins. We were perhaps used to hearing news of the departure of production units from Greece. For many years, this was the norm. We have fought hard to reverse this trend. So that businesses no longer leave but return. To make Greece an attractive investment destination.

During the years when the trend was for companies to leave Greece, I remember that it was also difficult to hear a voice in favor of competitiveness and attracting investment. You see, there had been a simplistic rhetoric against the private economy, against big business, a rhetoric of demonizing “capital”, and anyone who dared to talk about, for example, cutting taxes on businesses, would be attacked with characterizations that I don’t want to I repeat. Today, however, I believe that the attitude of Greek society towards these issues has also changed. Because we all now understand the overall profit that society has when the economy is attractive for investments, when it produces, when it creates jobs. And we’re still only at the beginning. Because Greece’s potential is enormous. In the last 4 years we have started to unlock them, and we will continue to do so as long as we have the trust of the citizens.

With that promise, I would like to thank you very much for your time and wish you a very nice Sunday.”

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