By Penelope Galliou

The political map that will follow from today until the elections in May, where he officially “placed” them, as well as his institutional and political program for after the elections if the ND is once again the government, outlined the prime minister during the interview after all the material which he granted to the show “Protagonists” and to Stavros Theodorakis.

Kyriakos Mitsotakis, without giving a date, announced the setting up of the ballot box in May, even explaining why they cannot be held later.

“I can tell you for sure that the elections will be held in May. They won’t be in July. And they won’t take place – it would be unthinkable to say that the elections will take place in July – because a second ballot may be needed. Very likely. And we are not going to hold elections in August. And of course we also have the Panhellenic period, which we must protect as the apple of our eye” said the prime minister.

Once again the prime minister stood in favor of autonomous governments with a strong parliamentary majority, considering that “this is the right solution for the country” and for this reason he defended the need for second elections after the May ballot which will be set up with the system of simple analog. “The first ballot should tell us ‘who’ should rule the country. The second, if necessary, – which I consider very likely to be necessary – will also indicate to us “how” the country will be governed. By what parliamentary majority. And beyond that, obviously, I will respect and we will respect the verdict of the Greek people.”

Speaking about partnerships, the prime minister, in an attempt to show the lack of a culture of partnerships in our country, “nailed” Nikos Androulakis, referring to the beginning of his assumption of duties as President of PASOK – KINAL. “When, for example, I asked Mr. Androulakis after he was elected to meet, to get to know each other, new party leader… He refused the meeting, he refused to meet me twice. I asked him to meet and he refused to see me. You can draw your own conclusions about how easy or difficult it can be to negotiate on these terms,” ​​Kyriakos Mitsotakis remarked meaningfully.

Referring to the pre-election period that Kyriakos Mitsotakis timidly restarted again, although he aspires to win the elections again, at the same time he knows that “the prime minister’s chair is temporary. This is not a permanent position and that is something I make sure to remind myself of at every opportunity.

Obviously we are, we are entering a pre-election period. I aspire to win elections again and I believe we will eventually succeed. But this should in no way give rise to feelings of confidence and arrogance,” he noted.

In fact, he remembered the recent words of Evdokia, a woman who was on the fatal Tempe train, that “one makes plans and God laughs”, to contrast the plans that the current government had made in these four years and how much they succeeded, which had to manage. “Too many contingencies, too many crises. So, planning is necessary, but at the same time we know that too many times we are faced with unforeseen events, which oblige us to redesign our priorities” remarked the Prime Minister.

The institutional reforms

Kyriakos Mitsotakis also opened his papers on the institutional post-election interventions he is planning, referring to his intention in the next Parliament to restart the process of constitutional revision in the next Parliament, which will be the proposing Parliament to make important changes to the Constitution, as he said .

Among the changes that he will insist on in the next constitutional revision will be the change of Article 16 for the country’s universities, while as he mentioned “there are also issues concerning the political system itself, and how we can possibly intervene in the electoral law and the structure of power. One thing that I will insist on, even though it has been much maligned and criticized, is what we call a staff state,” concluded the prime minister, setting the tone for the institutional reforms he will pursue if he continues to govern the country for another four years.

In both the Ministry of Transport and Infrastructure

However, in the news that the Prime Minister “brought out” during the interview he granted is his idea of ​​dividing the Ministry of Transport and Infrastructure into two Ministries. He even justified his thoughts by stressing that “in a Ministry of Infrastructure and Transport, the biggest burden falls on infrastructure and transport may be the ‘poor relative’. And one of the considerations we must consider is whether we should re-create an autonomous Ministry of Transport and to break the Ministry of Infrastructure and Transport in two. It is something that I am clearly thinking about and we are looking into it.”

Tempi and the possibility of resignation

Most of the prime minister’s interview was spent on the tragic accident, the events, the omissions, the responsibilities and the pathogens that contributed to it, to pledge for the umpteenth time that he will do everything he can “so that there is no cover-up and we throw plenty light on what happened and how we got here” noting that “in Tempe the country was confronted with eternal sins”.

But he also spoke about how he himself experienced that dramatic night of the accident from the moment he was informed. “I stayed up all night, trying to get a better picture. It was clear from the beginning that we were talking about something that was catastrophic. When we talked to the first responders, who went and described to us a revealing picture. And when I went the next day , it was probably the hardest thing I’ve ever done.”

Kyriakos Mitsotakis answered directly to the question of Stavros Theodorakis if he considered resigning after the events. “No. I have not learned to give up in difficulties and because politicians are ultimately judged by the people and certainly when the time of crisis comes there is a total balance. And the citizens will charge us with the fact that we could not ensure that our trains they are safe to the extent that they will judge,” he concluded.

The candidacy of Kostas Ah. Karamanlis

The prime minister referring to the resignation of Kostas Ah. Karamanlis from the Ministry of Transport and Infrastructure, commented that this honors him and noted that we have not seen this many times in the Greek political scene, however he avoided clarifying the landscape of the candidacy of the former Minister in the upcoming elections stating that he will discuss it with him ” when the time comes”.​