His disgust and pain for the tragic, as he called it, strike against civilians in the hospital in Gaza was expressed by Prime Minister, Kyriakos Mitsotakis in an interview, which he is currently giving to the main news bulletin of ANT1 and the journalist, Nikos Hatzinikolaou, while he asked for the full clarification of the tragedy. “We do not know who did the strike, I will not rush to draw a conclusion and this is also the official position of the European Union” he noted characteristically and underlined that Greece recognizes Israel’s right to self-defense within the limits of International Law, as, as he said , democracies do not take revenge.

In fact, Mr. Mitsotakis appeared concerned about the prospect of an Israeli ground invasion of Gaza and insisted that “reason and self-restraint must prevail.”

The prime minister insisted that “we do not want the escalation, nor the provocation of the humanitarian crisis, while we are moving to strengthen our internal security, but also the stricter guarding of our borders. “Greece’s reason is weighty, we are an honest interlocutor of all the states of the wider region” noted Kyriakos Mitsotakis.

Referring, in fact, to the potential effects of the dangerous ignition in the region, Mr. Mitsotakis reiterated that there are no alarming indications of an increase in flows, assuring, however, that the policy of strict but fair border guarding will continue, stressing that the European states and not the despicable traffickers will decide who crosses European borders.

Asked about Turkey’s stance on the new crisis in the Middle East, the prime minister pointed out that “in contrast to Greece, whose stance is balanced, Turkey’s stance is not balanced and the non-open condemnation of Hamas as a terrorist organization is very problematic” .

Regarding purely Greek-Turkish matters, Mr. Mitsotakis insisted that the Greek-Turkish dialogue is one of the few good news in the wider region, emphasized that the Greek-Turkish dialogue is developing in a good atmosphere and set as a milestone the realization of the Supreme Cooperation Council in Thessaloniki next December. “It would be a setback not to have the Supreme Cooperation Council” said the prime minister when asked about it.

The progress of the economy to lead to better wages in the private and public sector

The prime minister appeared reassuringly about the economic effects of the new crisis in the Middle East through ANT1. “So far, we have not seen major fluctuations in international oil prices,” said Mr. Mitsotakis characteristically, and insisted that “the Greek economy is still doing better than the European average, we expect the next evaluations to show that, it is very important the investment grade recovery”.

In fact, he sent the message that the government is ready to support the economy, households and businesses, certainly the most vulnerable, however he wished “that we don’t have to refer to our fiscal reserves”.

Asked about the fight against accuracy, the prime minister repeated that the reduction in VAT does not work, “other European countries also tried it and regretted it”, as he characteristically said. He listed government interventions on this front and emphasized that when prices fall, income increases will remain.

The prime minister did not fail to send a clear message to companies, even multinationals, who are profiting by saying characteristically: “if some people think that Greece is a banana and sell the same products at different prices, they are in deep trouble, if we have to deal with them too we will do it, just be patient and you will see.”

The prime minister concluded by saying that “I am interested in the progress of the economy having an impact on each and every one, that is, better salaries in both the private and public sectors”.