Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis’ weekly report on Facebook includes references to education, evaluation in the State, historic cinemas in the center of Athens, tourism, and the new Panathinaikos stadium.

Especially for tourism, he writes that “if the indications we have so far are confirmed, it will be even better than last year’s excellent year.”

And he continues: “We have managed to expand the tourist season and now our priorities are the protection of the environment, with the protection of our destinations, especially some iconic destinations which are currently under great pressure. I will we will soon announce our interventions as well as interventions to address the labor shortagea fact of course that has to do with the fair demand for better wages and better working conditions. Because I won’t get tired of saying it: everyone should have a dividend of success from the development of our tourism product.”

In addition, regarding the historic cinemas in the center of Athens, he states that he has requested the competent Ministry of Environment and Energy “to officially designate to the Central Council of Architecture, as historically protected and binding the use of cinema together with other uses of culture, leisure and tourism in both buildings housing the Ideal and Astorso that the investments highlight the uniqueness of landmarks and their role in the life of the city but also in our personal memories”.

The Prime Minister’s full post:

“Good morning. Palm Sunday today, one of the most important Sundays of Orthodoxy, the beginning of the Week of the Passion and the Divine Drama.

But before Holy Week begins, let me tell you about what I picked out of the big and small things that happened this past week.

Starting from the our schools. On Thursday I visited the 7th Primary School of Aghii Anargyro, where it has already been equipped with one of the total of 36,000 interactive whiteboards that will be installed in all 5th and 6th Primary, Junior High and High School departments across the country. It is another project of the National Plan “Greece 2.0”, financed by the Recovery Fund, and has a total budget of 150 million euros. With interactive whiteboards, the lesson becomes more attractive, more lively, and the interaction of students with the educational material is enhanced. Of course, a special training program for our teachers has been planned so that they can use as much as possible the possibilities that this new tool gives them.

I will stay at field of education. Last December, I personally committed to the students of the Tripoli Standard High School to establish a Standard High School in their city. We do it. At the same time, we are creating another 17 new Standard and Experimental schools, and all but one – in Agia Varvara – will be outside Attica (Chios, Amaliada, Ierapetra, Chania, Evosmos, Kastoria and Larissa). They will operate in 2024 and with them we reach 138 of the 60 we received.

This week I also announced the last symbolic but also essential act of our parliamentary term – the increase in OPECA disability benefits. Because while disability pensions increased, these benefits had not yet increased. They will therefore increase by 8%, thus boosting the income of 200,000 of our fellow citizens.

One good news: the “Housing and Work Program for the Homeless” which aims to help the reintegration of homeless people into work and social life, is nominated in the Pan-European Policy Innovation Awards. It is very moving to see how an action aimed at social cohesion and our effort to leave no one behind is recognized.

Something you may not have heard is that this week came forward procedure for rewarding the efficiency of public servants. We must not forget that there are many capable and worthy civil servants who provide quality services and we must recognize them. We also need to highlight them so they become the norm.

THE public assessment after all, it is not a punitive process as some fear, but a new culture that “ties” the goals by rewarding those who achieve them and further training those who do not.

In the first phase, the incentive and reward system will concern civil servants who worked to implement the objectives of the Ministries’ Annual Action Plans, but also those who worked to implement projects of the National Plan “Greece 2.0”. This action will be evaluated so that it can be gradually extended to other sectors of the public sector.

Of course, I know that when we talk about the State, many people’s minds go to bureaucracy. And not unfairly. But I hope that during these four years you have had at least one experience that has become much simpler and easier with digitization.

We have worked hard these four years to fight red tape, and we have won several battles in this war. The next thing that will be implemented concerns the simplification of the transfer of real estate by limiting the procedures and transactions in the DOU. The transfer of a property ceases to be an odyssey that means a gain in time and money for the parties involved.

However, if anything can be described with the word “odyssey”, this is the history of the new stadium of Panathinaikos. After 20 years of incredible setbacks, the dream of hundreds of thousands of friends of the Greens is finally coming true. On Thursday, preliminary work on the construction of the site where the new, state-of-the-art, international-standard, 40,000-seat PAO stadium will be built began in Botanikos.

And at the same time, an entire area that until now was bleeding will develop, will acquire infrastructure, utility networks, shared green spaces. This is a major urban intervention – doubly so because it also includes the remodeling of Alexandra Avenue. All the projects, with a total budget of 123 million euros, will be financed by the Recovery and Resilience Fund and the Public Investments program.

I have not hidden my football preferences, but this does not diminish my joy that a historic Greek team with many awards will finally have the home it deserves.

Speaking of her Athena I want to stand in the operation of them historic cinemas of the centera topic that has concerned all of us in recent days and concerns the physiognomy and identity of the capital.

I have asked the competent Ministry of Environment and Energy to officially designate to the Central Council of Architecture, as historically protected and binding the use of a cinema along with other uses of culture, recreation and tourism in the two buildings that house the Ideal and the Astorso that the investments highlight the uniqueness of landmarks and their role in the life of the city as well as in our personal memories.

We can have a harmonious coexistence of private investments – which are necessary for a lively urban center – with the simultaneous preservation of historical, architectural and cultural memory, respect for the daily habits of the inhabitants and harmonization with modern trends. Culture is a driver of development and social cohesion in our cities. And that is what we serve as a government.

To pass now to a striking transformation which I had the opportunity of witnessing in person during my recent visit to beautiful Iannena where we introduced it development program for Epirus in 2030 with more than 380 projects, totaling 2.7 billion euros. I’m talking about the once bankrupt state industry Dodoni which in the last 10 years has blossomed and grown.

It has doubled its annual turnover to 150 million euros, 50% of its turnover is from exports now sending its high quality products to more countries. It offers work to 500 people – it is the largest employer in Epirus – and supports, among other things, more than 1500 small producers, contributing to the stimulation of the local economy and development.

Dodoni is the model of healthy and innovative entrepreneurship, which we want to have and will support as a state, removing bureaucratic obstacles and creating a stable pro-investment environment.

With the opportunity to say that the sheep and goat farming it is the most important branch of animal production in Greece and in the last 4 years it has seen a significant increase in the volume of milk and feta production by 11%, in producer prices by 33% to 56% and also in exports. The PDO Greek feta is one of the main exportable agri-food products of our country and a key emblematic product of our Homeland that is adored by our visitors. Feta exports amounted to €605 million for 2022 compared to €388 million in 2019!

I pass to start of this year’s tourist seasonwhich if the indications we have so far are confirmed, it will be even better than last year’s excellent year. In 2022 we had record revenues but also a 10% increase in spending per capita from 564 euros in 2019 to 619 euros in 2022. This means that we are now attracting more quality tourism that spends more money in our country.

We have managed to extend the tourist season and now our priorities are to protect the environment, by protecting our destinations, especially some iconic destinations which are currently under great pressure. We will soon announce our interventions as well as interventions to address the labor shortage, which of course has to do with the fair demand for better wages and better working conditions. Because I won’t get tired of saying it: everyone should have a success dividend from the development of our tourism product.

I will close today’s account by reminding that until Holy Saturday the two new Carts we created are validof Easter and the Godfathers, which offer lower prices so that all our fellow citizens have the opportunity to celebrate these days.

I hope you found something of interest in this post. The election debates may have gained the limelight and the party squabbles may be in the limelight, but we have a duty to continue producing work for the benefit of the citizens until the last day.

So thank you from the bottom of my heart for taking the time to read this report.”