Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis referred to the elections, the goal of New Democracy, the situation that has developed after the tragedy in Tempi and the battle with the “deep state” in an interview he gave to STAR of Central Greece and to journalist Giorgos Simopoulos.

His interview in more detail prime minister:

George Simopoulos: Mr. President, Mr. Prime Minister, it is a great honor for you to come to the “STAR Forum – 30 years of STAR Central Greece”, regional television, and I would like you to tell me what you have received from regional television. How do you have her in mind?

Kyriakos Mitsotakis: First of all, the joy is mine. I want to congratulate you for this important forum that you are organizing, with topical issues concerning the local community, the region, but also issues of national interest. I am now watching a very interesting panel on disability issues.

I wish you every success, you have proven that there is an essential role for regional television as a medium that can more systematically highlight issues that ultimately concern citizens, because citizens are first and foremost interested in their own problems and obviously the problems which are closest to them. So I wish you every success and all the best in 50 years.

George Simopoulos: For the district, what is your priority? I remember your answer to the TIF on health issues, where you said that in the first four years we did not deal with regional hospitals so significantly, we had this difference with the pandemic, in the provision of services between Athens-central and regional hospitals. What else do you have as a top priority for the district, for us?

Kyriakos Mitsotakis: There are many things that we are planning for the Region of Central Greece and we will have the opportunity to present them in detail shortly. A plan that has more than 500 projects and more than 4 billion in secured resources, covering the whole range of our interventions for the Mainland Region as we envision it for 2030. We are talking about important infrastructure projects, we are talking about irrigation projects, we are talking for mobilizing private investments, for investments in education, culture, tourism and, of course, health.

Let me mention by way of example that the space we are in, the Lamia exhibition space, will be completely reformed with resources that come from the Recovery Fund, but also from the regional program of the Ministry of Infrastructure, and also from the regional NSRF.

We are of course talking about an intervention which will exceed 40 million euros and will create in this area a new pole of development, but at the same time an opportunity for an important urban renewal that will be enjoyed, I believe, by all the citizens of the Municipality and not only .

George Simopoulos: Do you want to implement these plans with the current Regional Governor or do you want someone else to come out?

Kyriakos Mitsotakis: I want to implement them with the current Regional Governor, whom we support in the next regional elections. I want to emphasize that the plan that we will present shortly is the result of an excellent collaboration that we have with the Region, but also with the Municipalities. I strongly believe that these are plans that must come about collaboratively. You know better than us to tell us what your priorities are, where we should allocate the resources that we can make available in the Region. And consequently, as the next Prime Minister, if the Greek people trust us again, I look forward to working with Fanis (Spanos) as the next Sterea Regional Governor.

George Simopoulos: Of course, the national elections are coming up and I would like you to tell me if the demand for self-reliance still remains strong in order to have governability or if there are other considerations.

Kyriakos Mitsotakis: I would say that the demand for self-reliance is connected on the one hand with the need for the country to have a stable government, on the other hand with the need to move even faster, even bolder, even more decisively and make a big leap into the future. And to those who claim that simple proportionality is the appropriate electoral system, I would ask them to look at what is happening in other countries that have simple proportionality as their electoral system.

Let me mention two by way of example: One is our northern neighbor, Bulgaria, which in a few days from now will have its fifth, I repeat, fifth elections in two years. Because it is completely impossible to form a government that has the confidence of the Parliament. Another country, which is currently shaken by large demonstrations, is Israel. And there is simple analogy. There is a major issue of governability. But I dare say that also in many other countries where there are coalition governments, there are very great difficulties in understanding between the government partners.

A typical example is Germany, a country that has a culture of cooperative governments and yet has great difficulties in getting government partners to agree with each other.

Why am I saying this? Because I firmly believe that in our country stable governments that enjoy a parliamentary majority, made up of one party but not just one color – I stress this – are the most suitable, they are the most tested and the ones that can finally ensure that the country will move very quickly on the path we have drawn.

George Simopoulos: What color does blue go with?

Kyriakos Mitsotakis: In what color? Blue matches blue. And besides, blue is our national color, it’s the color of our flag, it’s the color of the sky, it’s the color of the sea. But blue is a very spacious color. And why am I saying this? Because New Democracy, which I have the honor to lead, is an open faction that has been able to and has integrated executives from other political areas. It has incorporated new ideas. It is an extremely spacious lineup.

It is a faction that has proven, despite the difficulties, the adversities, the mistakes that have undoubtedly been made, that it has the plan and the will to lead the country forward, to make a great leap into the future.

We will have the opportunity between now and the elections to talk about our plans for the Greece of the future. But at the same time, let’s take stock, present to the Greek people, remind the Greek people of all that we have achieved in these four years, in the midst of very great, unprecedented – I would say – difficulties.

Courage to do our self-criticism. To recognize areas where there were delays, where there are still delays, deficiencies. Health – since you asked me – is a field to which we must turn our attention even more in the second four-year period.

And above all to speak the language of truth and realism. Away from the toxicity, the polarization, which I don’t think the citizens are interested in at all today, let’s appeal to the logic, but also the emotions of the citizens, to talk to them about a Greece they can feel proud of. I know that this may sound, after a national tragedy, as something that may not fit the climate of the day, but nevertheless I want to remind the citizens during this election period that despite our mistakes – I emphasize , which we recognized – we have achieved a lot in this four-year period and we can achieve much more.

George Simopoulos: It is a fact that in these four years, as my father told you, you went through too much: too many disasters, too many tragedies. But this last one seems to have hurt the Greek more. There was something different about it, maybe because they were new kids, I don’t know why. Is there a way to heal these wounds? Is there a way that at some point the Greeks will not be in pain for what happened?

Kyriakos Mitsotakis: We all hurt, we all cried, first and foremost obviously the relatives of the victims who lost their lives so unjustly. And I will repeat something that I have written before, a personal commitment that I made to the mother of Spyros Voulgaris who lost his life unjustly, a young child who comes here from your area, that I will do everything in my power not just to prevent this from happening again, but to change all the bad texts that hurt us. And indeed what we saw in the tragedy of Tempe is the expression of a Greece which we do not deserve: the Greece of worthlessness, of mediocrity, of projects that never end, of spreading responsibilities.

From the first moment I assumed the responsibilities assigned to me. I said clearly, that obviously this project should have been completed by the previous government, but neither we, although we accelerated it, managed to complete it. For this we also have a significant share of responsibility. But my duty is to turn rage or anger, distress, into creative feelings. To learn from our mistakes and even more determined to move forward, to confront what we call, in or out of quotes, the deep state. And to change the bad texts, of how the islands of the state apparatus work in our country.

Can we achieve it? Do we have the credibility to achieve this? I believe so. Because we have given writing samples at many levels. We implemented gov.gr, perhaps the biggest intervention in the Public Administration, which greatly simplified the contacts of citizens and businesses with the state. We reformed the EFKA, we took an organization that was practically on the verge of paralysis, we modernized it and now it can and does pay pensions in two months where they needed two and three years. We took over a PPC on the verge of bankruptcy and succeeded in turning it into a competitive business that can support citizens today and offer a – I would say – shield of protection against high electricity prices.

And let me remind you one more thing: that our faction is the one that has historically clashed with what we call the “deep state”. We fought with the Olympiaki unions, we fought with the PPA unions, when some, I want to remind you, were hanging on the bars of the Piraeus Port Organization against privatization.

We have given writing samples that we can and want to clash with what we call the “deep state”. And as long as the citizens trust me again, they should have no doubt that this will be a central mission of mine in the second four-year term.

George Simopoulos: After each interview we make an appointment for the next one, when will we meet at STAR Central Greece?

Kyriakos Mitsotakis: With great pleasure, you know that I always respect regional channels. Maybe we’ll meet before, where do you know? As the election season will slowly begin to heat up. You may have me again as a guest at STAR Central Greece on my next tour here in your beautiful Region. Be absolutely certain that I will visit her again before the election.

George Simopoulos: Great, thank you very much.

Kyriakos Mitsotakis: Thank you.