By Penelope Galliou

The curtain of the opening meeting of the program statements of the government opened, and with it, as of yesterday afternoon, a new period in the parliamentary history of the country was inaugurated. A period, the characteristics of which were outlined during this first meeting of the new Parliament, giving a “faint” sample of the intentions of all the political leaders of the eight parties of the Parliament, placing all against all, but keeping at least the pretenses of the first official parliamentary meeting their.

Yesterday’s session of the Parliament was characterized by many “firsts” as perhaps for the first time in the post-revolutionary history, it was not only the prime minister, the person who monopolized the interest but the “lights” of publicity and the interest “spread” to all its wings Parliament and to all political leaders, for different reasons for each.

The speech of Kyriakos Mitsotakis had a clear and mild celebratory tone after the second big electoral victory of June 25, while the absence of the leader of SYRIZA for 11 years, Alexis Tsipras, until a few days ago, caused a sensation from the premiere of the leading parliamentary process. In his place, the “baptism of fire” was taken by the transitional president of the KO of SYRIZA, Sokratis Famelos, who held high the flag of the opposition discourse against the government, but with clearly softer tones, than those that had prevailed in the last period of previous parliamentary term and the pre-election period.

A first also for the president of PASOK, Nikos Androulakis, who had his maiden position in the Parliament as the parliamentary leader of his party. A placement in intense opposition tones without exaggerations and crowns, promising a constructive, substantial and non-toxic opposition.

Kyriakos Mitsotakis presented the axes of government policy for the 2023-2027 monster year for all sectors, from the economy and development to national issues, social policy and infrastructure projects with the aim of “Becoming the architects of our destiny”, as he commented, closing his 75-minute speech and having recorded the plan for the next four years, which he described as “multidimensional modernization”.

The prime minister announced that he seeks “together with the citizens to start the optimistic journey towards the Greece of 2030”, noting that “the new reality states that the old dividing lines have faded, the new dichotomy is progress-regression”.
“I won’t promise miracles, but persistence and hard work,” the prime minister said in an abhorrence of his speech, adding that his intention is “at the end of the four years to have built a Greece where individual ambitions will reconcile with collective progress”, while taking care to also send his messages inside the Parliament, stressing that the new Parliament “is multi-party, but it should not be turbulent. Democratic pluralism will not allow any cacophony”.

With the empty seat of Alexis Tsipras in the foreground, Sokratis Famelos insisted on the “gray” description of Greek reality and government policy, without however raising the tone. “Regardless of the outcome of the elections, the problems remain the same,” he said and accused the prime minister of “promising solutions to problems that the government itself either created or was unable to solve.” He criticized the entire matter, referring extensively to the accuracy, salaries, problems and deficiencies in the ESY and the EKAV, up to the national and equipment issues. In contrast, he shared some of SYRIZA’s proposals, noting that it has a completely different political proposal from ND, based on the following pillars: A strong, modern, innovative state, which will not leave the citizens alone.

Nikos Androulakis also brought fire to the government’s policy and commitments by questioning the government’s narrative of success in the economy and focused particularly on the social state, health, and education. “The Prime Minister presented a beautified image of the economy. He made promises that will not be implemented and hid what is coming,” said the president of PASOK and assessed that “However, the government’s unreliability does not stop here. You show the increase of salaries as a central project of your new term . But because, as you yourself revealed in an interview in the medium term, you can’t do tricks, you sent Brussels a 12.7% increase while here you said pre-election about 25%. Directly despising the citizens’ anxiety for better wages,” he stressed.

In his speech, G.G. spoke about a new economic crisis that is just around the corner. KKE’s Dimitris Koutsoubas emphasizing that his party will be the real opponent of the government. “The omnipotence or not of any government is not judged by whether it has more MPs, whether there is a strong official opposition, but whether there is a strong organized popular movement”, he said to add that anyone who talks about the omnipotence of the ND and advocates it will be solemnly refuted.

The president of the Spartans, Vassilis Stigas, harshly criticized all the parties that ruled the country, emphatically trying to shake off the Golden Dawn label from his party, even though on the night of the elections he thanked Ilias Kasidiaris for his support for the new party entering the Parliament. He also claimed that he is directly opposed to Nazism and fascism, stating that by arguing that the Spartans are not continuations of another party.

The president of Hellenic Solution, Kyriakos Velopoulos, severely criticized the statements of Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis in his speech, characterizing the new government as a new Simitis government.

Low fertility and education were at the center of the maiden speech of the president of Nike, Dimitris Natsios, who promised to work “for its unity in the light of our common principles and values. Our country needs children and education”, he noted and he said that “the invisible enemy called underbirth is much more insidious than the visible enemies of our nation”.

References to 2012 and 2015 were made by Zoe Konstantopoulou’s maiden speech – as party president – in the Parliament, which, after criticizing the government and SYRIZA, “recommended” her party to the citizens and to their colleagues, stressing that they entered the Parliament ” to give life to the parliament. To bring citizens into the parliament so that citizens can be heard in the parliament… We are a movement whose 8 MPs will form a model parliamentary group as we dream, we envision a parliamentary group that deserves citizens of this country”.