Complacency was pointed out by the party’s president, Kyriakos Mitsotakis, as an opponent of the ND, while visiting Nea Ionia. At the same time, he pointed out that if simple proportionality did not apply then the country would already have a strong government with a comfortable parliamentary majority, which is what the country needs to face the major geopolitical challenges of the time. Mr. Mitsotakis pointed out that Turkey has a strong and stable government and added that “black Greece” was defeated in the May 21 elections, while he emphasized that the ND government reduced 50 taxes, without jeopardizing the country’s fiscal stability.

The full text of the greeting of the President of the New Republic Kyriakos Mitsotakis at a gathering of citizens in Nea Ionia follows:

Good day from blue Nea Ionia. Who would have expected that New Democracy would win in New Ionia with a 10-point margin over SYRIZA. That is why I am here today, to say a big thank you for the fight we fought together, for the great victory we achieved on Sunday 21 May.

Thank you for your love and support for our great faction, New Democracy. It is also a special moment for me, I remember when I first started as a candidate for Member of Parliament in the unified Athens B-district – I tell it now to my colleagues in the northern sector, who sometimes complain that your constituency is large, think a little, what it meant when we had to cover all of Athens B. But I remember, when I came to Nea Ionia, we were much less, now we are much more and we will be even more on the evening of June 25, to complete the important step we took in the previous ballot of May 21.

I can’t help but forget that I’m coming to Nea Ionia – I had the opportunity to talk with the Mayor as well – 100 years after the founding of the city. A city, which has a deep history and roots in refugee Hellenism, which we honor, which we recognize.

Mind you, “you are and will be the Prime Minister”. At the moment I am not the Prime Minister. We have a caretaker Prime Minister. If you want me to be the Prime Minister again, everyone go and vote at the ballot box on June 25th.

And there is a reason why I am not Prime Minister today and that is called “simple proportionality”. Because if the elections had been held with the enhanced proportional system, today the country would already have a stable government with a comfortable parliamentary majority.

So, what some people did not allow us to do at the polls on May 21st because they experimented with the simple analogy, I ask you to do it twenty days from now, with a strong New Democracy, with a comfortable parliamentary majority.

Because, today, the country needs, first and foremost, a stable government, which can safely lead our country into the future and face the great geopolitical challenges of the region.

You see that Turkey already today has a new, strong, stable government. We also need a stable government in our country, to be able to continue to defend our sovereignty, our sovereign rights, to upgrade our geopolitical role, to continue to effectively and justly protect our borders both on land and at sea. This, then, is the big issue of the next election. If we will be able to continue on this path of recovery and modernization of the country.

The strong majority for a stable government that we are asking for is also a necessary condition, friends, in order to be able to implement the great changes that we have already talked to you about and for which we have already obtained the positive vote of the Greek people.

Because if something was vindicated in the previous pre-election period, it is the correct political speech, the emphasis on the program and the rejection of the toxic political speech, the divisive political speech, the lies, the “black Greece”.

“Black Greece” was defeated in the May 21 elections, “bright Greece” won. Division defeated, unity won. And the party that managed to convince the majority of citizens that it has a real plan for how we envision Greece in the next four years, emphasizing a stable and sustainable development, with more jobs, with more investments and with a stronger social state.

I have been following the public debate with interest for the last few days and it seems that the opposition is exhausting its political discourse, competing to see who will impose the most taxes.

We proved that we can reduce taxes for every Greek woman and man – we reduced 50 taxes – without jeopardizing the country’s fiscal stability. Because when an economy is growing, when a business is doing better, when it has more profits, it may pay a lower tax rate, but ultimately the revenue for the state will be increased.

This is the great benefit of a development policy, which is based on a logic of reasonable tax reduction to be able to attract investments and every entrepreneur, from the big businessmen who invest in our country, foreigners and locals, to the small shop of the neighborhood, to know that there is stability and predictability. This is ultimately what the entrepreneur wants to do from the small investment of upgrading his store to the large hotel investment, which can provide hundreds of jobs.

This stable economic environment, in which the private economy develops, only the government of the New Republic can ensure. That is why we are the only guarantors that this recovery process of the Greek economy, which began amid great difficulties four years ago, can continue. We are also the party and faction that guarantees that, yes, we can manage and deal with whatever major crises come our way.

There were not a few crises that occurred to us in the past four years, but we succeeded and took advantage of them to our advantage. And today Greece is much stronger both economically and geopolitically than it was four years ago. And the voice of Greece today counts and is heard, from Brussels to the United States Congress.

This is not just a factional victory, it is a country victory because we know how much lost ground we have to cover. And how painful were the consequences of this ten-year crisis which afflicted us so much.

This, then, is the big question of the next election, friends. Whether we will continue to move forward on the path we have set out on, or whether we will fall back into a period of prolonged instability, with governments unable to have the strong parliamentary legitimacy to push through the big changes.

I have never hidden, friends, that I do not seek to be a mere administrator of power. I want us to make the big changes together and for our country to finally be able to change course.

In this great effort that we started four years ago, I want you as fellow travelers. And for me, it is extremely encouraging that they joined forces with the New Democracy in these elections that were passed by our fellow citizens who had never voted for us.

Do you know how difficult it is, friends, for a party that is in power to increase the absolute number of votes it receives and its percentages? And yet we succeeded. Not many would bet that this could happen.

But we will do better and we must do better in the June 25 election for one key reason. The next Parliament may have six or seven parties. You all know by now that this means the bar for self-reliance is being raised. So, if we want to have a stable and strong majority that allows us to implement our program, yes, we can and must increase our voter turnout even more.

We have the wind in our sails, we look up, but our feet are on the ground. We are neither arrogant nor proud. We leave these behaviors for some others, who suffer from “micro megalomaniac syndrome”, because they succeeded and took a double digit percentage by force. They think they have achieved no great triumph.

We achieved a very high percentage, but we remain grounded, because we know that our opponent is the problems of the citizens. I also know, very well, that the next day, of the next electoral victory, I must, with your trust, be the Prime Minister of all Greek women and all Greek men and not just those who voted for us.

That is why the preservation of unity, the rejection of toxicity, the emphasis on correct political speech, will distinguish our election campaign from now until the elections of June 25. I want to ask all our cadres – I see among us old traditional cadres, when we were very few in Nea Ionia, you kept the flag of the faction standing tall and I owe you a big thank you.

I see with us, however, many new executives, who were recruited in 2019, some came and voted for us for the first time now. I say to them: trust us, we know where we want to steer the ship of Greece and let’s go together to fight this fight so that not a single vote is lost at the polls on June 25.

Our opponent, yes, is complacency, it is this feeling that the result has been discounted. No results have been discounted. The polls will be empty on the morning of June 25 and must be refilled with many New Democracy ballots. They will be filled with many New Democracy ballots and all of Greece will be blue again. This will be a vote of confidence in our faction, but also in me personally, which – and I want to convey this to you exactly as I feel it – increases the responsibility I have towards you, to rise to the occasion and pass above the high bar we set.

We achieved a lot. We can achieve much more. I firmly believe that especially in the economy the best days are ahead of us. I walked, today, here, on the pedestrian street of Nea Ionia, there is no shop that has been booked, the shopkeepers now see their future with greater optimism. This does not mean that there are no problems, there are many problems that we have to deal with. However, we have every right to believe that the best is ahead of us and together we can achieve it.

I don’t think there has ever been such a massive gathering at such a time in Nea Ionia, but that says something. It also says something about the expectations of the citizens, it says something about the big “blue wave” that is rising and which, on the evening of June 25, will lead us to another great electoral victory.

So let’s go together, let’s not lose any votes. To the young women and men, who lined up with us, in the face of the predictions that said “youth have turned their backs on New Democracy”, I ask them, first go vote and then go to the beach. First we exercise our right and then we will all be able to celebrate together, on the evening of June 25, a great electoral victory for our faction. A great victory for the homeland, a great victory for our Greece.

So, let’s go together for another great victory, for the Greece that we envision, firmly, boldly and only forward for a self-reliant Greece. Be well. Thank you very much. See you again and with victory.