By Penelope Galliou

After the short holiday break, the government is back at work, bringing forward all the open legislative matters pending from 2023 and planned for 2024. The first government appointment of the new year has been set for today, in Maximos Palacein order to start the procedures and put the draft law for the postal vote of Greeks abroad in the European elections into public consultation, but at the same time to run the rest of the legislative regulations that the government’s agenda has recorded for the beginning of the new year.

References to postal vote and the participation of expatriates in the elections, was also included in his New Year’s message Kyriakou Mitsotakis to the expatriate Greeks through the newspaper “Ethnikos Kirikas”. The prime minister characterized the Greeks abroad as “ambassadors of the motherland” and “living cells of Hellenism”, underlining that they are an “integral part of the country”. Regarding the establishment of postal voting, from the European elections in June, the prime minister noted that the goal is “for everyone to have a voice for what is happening in the country, without expense and inconvenience”.

The government’s stable and non-negotiable message for 2024 remains the reform policy for which it has pledged to complete within the second year, focusing on the citizen and the improvement of his daily life.

In this context, within January it is expected that the bill for the non-state Universities, which – together with the parallel strengthening of the public University – is a crown for the educational policy of the government. After all, the Maximos Palace expects and invests a lot in the “turning of the page” in higher education, harmonizing with European and global university education and opening up a series of perspectives, for the whole of higher education, the economy, the students and the scientists who will believe and they will work for her.

At the same time, the new framework for dealing with it is expected to “run” from the first days of the year sports violenceon and off the pitches, with a milestone on February 12, when fans are set to return to football pitches.

In the next period, the emblematic reform is also expected – as described by the Minister of Justice, George Floridisto Judicial Charter of the country with amendments both to Criminal Code as well as in the Code of Criminal Procedure. A reform that aims to deal with chronic pathologies, to instill in citizens the belief that they will find their right without getting involved in lengthy criminal proceedings and also to ensure that the punishment will be commensurate with the illegality. The purpose of the government and the Minister of Justice is to completely reform the criminal system that has existed for decades in the country, both in terms of penalties and in terms of the speed of justice and the reliability of criminal proceedings.

In health at the same time, after the salary increases and the increases in the duty hours of doctors and nurses, within ’24 the individual changes in public hospitals are being launched with the aim of administrative and operational changes that will change the health map of the country.

His first meeting ministrial Council for the new year, it is set for January 10, when the Ministry of Environment’s bill for the automated demolition of new illegal buildings is expected to be approved, a regulation which cannot be ruled out to have retroactive effect.