The Prime Minister, Kyriakos Mitsotakis, spoke about the criticality of the May 21 elections, touring Koukaki today at noon, while he also raised the dilemmas of the ballot box.

At the same time, the prime minister highlighted the government’s work, recognizing at the same time that a lot still needs to be done.

“The May 21 ballot is an extremely critical ballot. I don’t want to talk about double elections. There is only one ballot box. It’s the ballot box of May 21. This will send the message of who will govern Greece in the next four years and which party should hold the helm of the country,” said the Prime Minister.

The whole speech in Koukaki:

“Friends, new democrats, here in Koukaki you are sending your own message for the great victory of May 21. Thank you. Thank you from the bottom of my heart for such a warm, such a warm welcome on this sunny day. May 21, spring dawns for our country. This is the ballot box that will decide everything.

There we will send, all Greek women and men, a clear message: that the country will not turn back and that everything we have achieved and conquered through hard work, through difficulties in these four years, we will not put it at risk and the trajectory progress of the country will continue. Our country will continue to go higher, to be stronger, safer, with more economic prosperity.

A better future for all, above all for our young men and women, because I will not get tired of saying that it is for them that we fight first and above all, to ensure that they live in a country where individual advancement meets the collective responsibility.

For all this, friends, we fought for four years now. And as I remember 2019, this very nice double battle that we fought when with your support we were elected independent in the July elections, we will do the same now.

Friends, the Greek people will trust us again. Because the people have judgment, see, compare and evaluate. He remembers where Greece was in 2015, where it was in 2019 and where it is in 2023. He remembers who they were who told him that they would “tear up the memorandums with a law and an article” and they crushed you in taxes and contributions.

I heard Mr. Tsipras talking to Pyrgos and saying: “I will correct the injustices of the Katrougalou law.” Except he didn’t tell us that he voted for the Katrougalo law that crushed the pensioners. He voted for him and our own government is the one that increased pensions for the first time in 12 years. It is our own government which undertakes and gradually corrects, to the extent of our fiscal possibilities, the enormous injustice of personal difference.

We gave between 200 and 300 euros to those pensioners who did not see an increase because of the personal difference and I pledge that we will continue to support these pensioners until the personal difference is completely extinguished, as year after year the pensions will now increase because the country has entered an irreversible path of development.

And I’m talking to you today, here in Koukaki, at the foot of the Acropolis, in a very dynamic, colorful neighborhood. I already see, I met walking these 100 meters several visitors who are already coming to our country. We will have another excellent year in Greek tourism.

And this, however, is the result of hard work. All this did not happen, friends, they did. They succeeded and are also linked to the overall improvement of the country’s image. A country that radiates self-confidence, with an economy that is growing, with better wages, because my central concern is always that the surplus of development returns to society, primarily to the weakest.

And I want you to know that if the economy didn’t grow at 6%, as it did last year, we wouldn’t be able to provide all the support that we provided to households with electricity bills, to households with Market Pass, the emergency allowances which we gave at Christmas.

We are accused, he says, by some of doing a bonus policy. I answer them: we implement a development policy, but we will always support the weakest, because we are a popular faction. We are a faction of all Greek women and all Greek men.

It is always worth, as we head towards the elections, to do a brief review of our government’s work, not only to highlight all that we have achieved, but to demonstrate that relationships of trust are only built through the consistency of words and deeds.

I told you in July 2019, I remember – some of you will remember, we gave a very nice closing speech in the Theseus from the other side of the Acropolis Rock. At the same point again, we will make our final pre-election speech, because it was a hoot – then I told you three simple things. I had set three goals.

I told you: I will reduce taxes for all Greek women and men. Did I cut their taxes? Yes, we reduced taxes for all Greek women and men.

I promised you more growth, more jobs and, yes, better wages. Did we bring jobs? We brought 300,000 new jobs. And we increased the minimum wage, from 650 to 780 euros. Its implementation begins and our low-wage fellow citizens will begin to be paid 780 euros – and all the benefits that, of course, the minimum wage entails, such as maternity benefits, from April 1st.

I told you something else. I want a strong and confident country. A country that will finally defend its borders. A country that will look Turkey in the eye and defend its sovereignty and sovereign rights with confidence and dynamism. Did we achieve all this? Yes, we did it. We succeeded.

And we didn’t achieve them in neutral situations. We have achieved this in the midst of enormous crises: an immigration invasion, an aggressive neighbor, a pandemic, the war in Ukraine, an energy crisis, an accuracy crisis, many natural disasters. We managed them all adequately.

And we didn’t just manage them adequately. We also used crises as an opportunity to make faster leaps into the future.

The digital transformation, gov.gr, a great success of the government as a whole, is here to stay. The vaccination campaign. We’ve forgotten about Covid, haven’t we? Fortunately, we left them behind. But, do you remember when you got a message from the Greek state saying “you’re going to get your vaccine at 11:28” and no one believed that the Greek state could work like that. And yet it worked like this.

And the big challenge for the next four years is for the state to function like this everywhere. Using technology, but also with more meritocracy and evaluation for employees. A responsible, serious state, without foci of anachronism and “nepotism”. Unfortunately we saw them. We were hurt, we were hurt, we were all saddened by these tragic events, the national tragedy of Tempe. But they already strengthened us, they strengthened us.

And we have an obligation: this state that hurts us – it is not the whole state, but there are still several parts of the state that function like this – to change it. And we have proven, friends, that we can do this and we will do it.

The dilemmas of the elections will be very clear. There is a credible government proposal from New Democracy. We told you what we wanted to do in ’19, we presented our work, we will present it with confidence but also with modesty, we will recognize our mistakes. I had no difficulty whenever mistakes were made in coming forward myself and saying that I take responsibility and will correct the misspellings. This is required by the responsibility of the office.

As the election season unfolds, we’ll be talking in greater detail about what we want to do over the next four years and how we’ll continue on that path without turning back.

But I want to point out again that the ballot box of May 21 is an extremely critical ballot box. I don’t want to talk about double elections. There is only one ballot box. It’s the ballot box of May 21. This will send the message of who will govern Greece in the next four years and which party should hold the helm of the country.

And of course, I want to remind you, because I also saw some older fighters, I remembered it this morning: April 8, 1990, after three electoral contests, Konstantinos Mitsotakis was finally gaining independence. But be careful, this historical parallel is important – I’m also saying this for the younger people who may not remember it so well – three elections were needed then, simple proportional system, we won by one seat difference.

THE simple analog is a recipe for anarchy for the country. We didn’t choose it, we believe that the right system for the country is the enhanced analog system, which it has essentially been governed by for many years. With this system, Mr. Tsipras also won and ruled, let’s not forget. He changed the electoral law after he had managed to win two elections.

At the present time what is important, first and foremost, is stability and efficiency.

Neighboring Bulgaria had elections last Sunday. For those of you who don’t know, it was the fifth election in two years. Again they cannot form a government, because quite simply the parties cannot come to an agreement.

We don’t need such adventures in Greece. We must move steadily forward.

And of course, I don’t want to say much about our opponents. I think they speak for themselves and their works and their words. But I can’t help but point out – I said it this morning on TV as well – that today, as we speak, not a kilometer down here, Mr. Tsipras is in Nea Smyrni in a place called “Cafe me Paramythi”. He will feel at home.

Well, since we have had our fill of fairy tales and citizens know how to tell the tale tellers from those who speak the language of the truth, I have no doubt that on May 21 they will choose correctly. They will choose New Democracy as the responsible force for stability and progress in the country.

And I want to ask you to do this fight, which has already begun, with even greater enthusiasm. I am impressed wherever I go and speak – and I have already been around Greece and will do it again as many times as necessary – the participation of people in all our public events. She is truly impressive. I thank each and every one of you from the bottom of my heart.

Because you win the elections. Each and every one of you will convince those who may have trusted us in 2019 and now feel alienated that they may have reason to be upset, but they have no reason to feel betrayed. Others betrayed them. We were consistent in what we said. We struggled with very great difficulties. We have recognized our mistakes and are always looking forward.

But you will also speak to those who have never voted for us before. And there are many who are thinking of voting for us for the first time. They are the ones who possibly thought of voting for us in 2019 and were afraid at the last moment. Now they can see and compare.

It is the first time since 1993 that the current Prime Minister is actually facing off against the previous Prime Minister. So the comparison is direct. And this happened of course because Mr. Tsipras, despite the three defeats he had on his head, did not rush to resign as party leader, as anyone would do when he loses an election. And it’s been 15 years, huh? Don’t forget, 15 years President, 15 years President of SYRIZA.

But they are probably preparing for the next day and how they will handle their own defeat. We don’t care about that. We have work to do. We have to talk about what we have done and the much more we will do.

Be well. Good strength, good fight. Happy Easter, happy Resurrection to all and to all and see you again, here in Thisio, at our big pre-election gathering”.