The support of the government and personally of Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis in his person regional governor of Western Macedonia and re-applicant, Giorgos Kasapidis, Minister of State Makis Voridis underlined, speaking at a campaign rally. From Ptolemaida, on Saturday evening, the Minister of State said characteristically “the reason for my presence today is to declare, in a clear way and to convey, at the same time, unconditionally, the support of the Prime Minister of Greece and the President of the New Democracy to candidacy of Giorgos Kasapidis”.

Following his greeting, Mr. Voridis explained that the regions are large administrative entities and the choices made in them have a clear ideological color. Therefore, he continued, districts and governorship choices are not politically neutral.

At the same time, he connected this choice with the current situation and the projects that must be done in the near future in the country. “In the next period the regions will manage the most important amounts”, he said and highlighted three issues: The first is “the way of managing the amounts – I clarify, which projects, which infrastructures we will do”. The second is that “especially for the Recovery Fund amounts, the framework is extremely heavy in terms of procedure and even stricter in terms of deadlines. If these amounts are not used in the right way and at the right time, if they are not absorbed, these amounts are lost.” The third issue is that “because there have been many financial tools for the country in the past, which have been lost or misused and public money has not been respected in the way it should be, we need good fiscal management. These amounts must be used with respect for public money, with honesty, integrity and transparency in order to maximize their result”, he stressed.

“I said all this to explain the fact of the choices we made at the party level to support the regional governors. We need people with whom we have a common walk, a common perception, understanding and at the same time we have trust”. Consequently, he added, “the selection of regional governors was not a formal procedure of the ND and the prime minister. We did not choose anyone who was the acting regional governor of the ND, to continue to be a candidate for regional governor in all cases. We did an evaluation of his work as there were at least two “in-progress” cases that we chose not to support.

Voridis’ speech ended with “therefore” that whoever does not support Kassapidis, does not support his party. On Sunday afternoon, the count will be made and political conclusions will be drawn for the ND faction, he noted, stating, in conclusion, that he is confident that in the assessment of the election night, Western Macedonia will be “blue”.

At the same event, the Deputy Minister of Macedonia – Thrace, Stathis Konstantinidis, also greeted on behalf of the government.