The government is considering stricter penalties for traffic violations, as the Minister of Citizen Protection Yiannis Oikonomou told SKAI, stressing at the same time that the penalties must be applied.

In this context, a meeting will be held tomorrow at the ministry on road safety issues, intensification of controls as the perception must be consolidated that everything foreseen will be implemented.

As Mr. Economou mentioned, there are specific violations that the situation has tragically gotten out of hand, such as red light violation, stop violation, aggressive driving, cell phone use.

“If we have to make tougher decisions, one is the tougher decision, taking away your driver’s license, many months at first, many years if you do it again, permanent if you are a repeat offender.”

He stated that there is a need to redeploy the potential of the Greek police to critical services in order to consolidate citizen security.

He underlined that the weakening of the traffic must be stopped immediately and the 250 people who were seconded only in 2023 should be returned.

He emphasized that the technological means and cameras that already exist will be used for traffic violations and for the safety of citizens.

He added that at the same time, the DIAS team has been ordered to issue penalties for traffic violations as well.

Asked about the improvised illegal races on the Athens-Souni beach, he said that some people will not be allowed to turn a public road into a race track, endangering human lives and causing noise pollution.

He pointed out that such actions will be prohibited, the traffic police and the police will intervene at regular intervals, such as on Friday and Saturday when arrests were also made.

For new identities he emphasized that any denial is nothing but obscurantism and absurdity and added that the new identity is not forged and will not be hacked.

Finally, he said that from December, if it is legislated, it will be possible for the new identity card to contain the personal number, the VAT number with two or three digits, which the citizen will choose.