“The “Marietta Giannakou” program as is the program upgrading of hospitals and Health Centers they are two huge necessities for society and are what is essentially considered social policy. What we need to do is for every student, every teacher, every patient, every citizen to have schools, buildings, hospitals, worthy of the expectations of a European citizen. This is what the government does,” said the deputy minister to the prime minister and government representative Pavlos Marinakis when informing the political editors and answering a relevant question.

“Greece currently has a student to teacher ratio of 8:1, Europe has over 12. Greece this year starts the school year with the most appointments ever made by a government. Within 5 years approximately 38,000 appointments. Last year we had more students per class in both kindergarten and high school and the same students per class in high school and elementary school,” he said.

“The ministry increases the potential of teachers with permanent appointments, quadruples special education appointments and proceeds with some mergers that do not exceed 1.5% of departments in order to make a proper distribution of human resources,” he added.

Then Mr. Marinakis spoke in bullying initiativesbut also the digital tutorial which, as he said, is a big step for our education system.

In question about the immigration the government representative, after saying that Greece’s migration policy is very successful, said: “In a few years we have managed to implement a strict but fair migration policy, we have reduced migration flows over a 5-year period by more than 85%, we have actually annihilated the flows from our land borders and in cooperation with our neighbors we have a much more effective maritime border policy.” “Greece, in terms of what it has to do, has done more than that and what remains now is to have the new immigration and asylum agreement,” he stressed.

“Compared to the rest of the countries of Europe, it seems that our policies are paying off more,” said Mr. Marinakis in response to a question about the accuracy. “Compared to the European average, the government’s policy is more efficient,” he said.

“The key is the fastest possible increase in incomes, both with direct interventions and with indirect moves such as the reduction of 12 taxes announced by the Prime Minister at the TIF. The second is more and more intensive controls” he pointed out and noted: “There are no magic wands, we understand the difficulty of households and our goal is hard work with the best possible results.”

For the reactions to the increases in uniforms Mr. Marinakis said that “the money is specific”. He noted that “fortunately we are talking about surpluses in the Greek economy and the possibility of a gradual increase in the incomes of citizens that have been reduced for too many years” and added: “As for the uniformed, it is not only the increase in nighttime that the prime minister announced, but also a series of interventions that touch their incomes, such as increases from 2024 to all civil servants, increases in child benefits, in positions of responsibility benefits, as well as in the special conditions allowance. From 1/1/2025, in addition to the increase for night time, uniformed officers will receive the corresponding increases that all civil servants will receive, and of course the corresponding increase through the reduction of insurance contributions that applies to both the public and private sectors”.

Pavlos Marinakis today started briefing political editors with reference to the Prime Minister’s presence at a primary school in Glyfada for the traditional consecration for the new school year. He emphasized that this new year begins with 10+1 changes and stated:

“We proceeded with 10,000 teacher appointments, more than any other year, while 20,000 substitutes are helping with the parallel support. We quadrupled the appointments to special education teachers, created the digital tutoring so that all students regardless of where they are have equal opportunities. We strengthen hard-to-reach areas with the physical presence of teachers but also with remote classes. We strengthen the school vocational orientation, we install interactive tables for a better learning process. In addition, as the Prime Minister announced from the stage of the TIF, the “Marietta Giannakou” program will start immediately, amounting to 250 million euros initially, for the renovation of school facilities. An analytical database will be compiled and recorded within the next month in cooperation with the local government, the data required for the start of the projects so that the works can start in early 2025″.

He emphasized that every detail for the schools will be redesigned and the changes will be continuous until the end of the government’s term as the responsible minister Kyriakos Pierrakakis has also pointed out.

He then referred to student basket stating that in the first two weeks of its implementation, the products included in the initiative had reduced prices of 5-10% compared to the prices of the corresponding products in September 2023. “The measure which aims both to strengthen competition for the benefit of consumer as well as in the information of the buying public about the prices of the products seems to have already borne fruit, with the maximum reduction in specific products reaching 38% and the lowest being approximately 5%. We will continue to support students and parents, seeking with our policies both to stimulate competition in order to reduce prices and to increase the incomes of all citizens with targeted moves”, he stressed.

He then referred to the meeting on the government priorities in the health sector which took place yesterday at Megaros Maximos under the prime minister where the implementation of the program for the free performance of 37,500 afternoon surgeries with resources from the Recovery and Resilience Fund, which will start as soon as possible, was discussed. “Emphasis will be given to long-waiting citizens as part of the wider strategy to systematically reduce the backlog of surgeries in public hospitals, which is now tracked through the single digital surgery list,” he said. He also mentioned that at the press conference held a little while ago at the Ministry of Health, the measures announced by the Prime Minister from the TIF were specified, among which the salary increase up to 7,200 euros per year for the attraction and stay of the NHS doctors in barren areas and the independent taxation of 22% of doctors’ on-call hours which leads to an increase of 130 euros per month in their salaries”.

Also referred to digital platform of the Ministry of Social Cohesion and Family which concerns the granting of income support to families who reside permanently in Mountainous and Disadvantaged Areas for a period of at least two years. “The aid amount is 600 euros per year if the family income per year does not exceed 3,000 euros, or 300 euros per year if the family income is between 3,000 and 4,700 euros. The platform will remain open for submitting applications until October 30, 2024,” he stressed.

“On the initiative of our country, as announced by the Minister of Environment and Energy Thodoris Skylakakis, a joint action by Greece, Bulgaria and Romania is proceeding, with the aim of creating a permanent intervention mechanism, whenever extreme prices are recorded, due to the cutting off South-Eastern Europe from the rest of the European energy market”, he then pointed out. “Furthermore, a short time ago a press conference of the Ministry of Environment and Energy began to present the measures to deal with the water shortage.”

Concluding, he emphasized that today the prime minister is going to Vienna in a short time, where he will meet with the Austrian chancellor Karl Neuhammer.

“Furthermore, tomorrow Thursday, September 12, at 11:30 an Interministerial Press Conference will be held on the specialization of the family support measures announced by the Prime Minister at the Thessaloniki International Fair.

On Friday, September 13, at the same time, an Interministerial Press Conference will be held on the specialization of the measures concerning housing and on Monday, September 16, also at 11:30, an Interministerial Press Conference will take place on the measures to support entrepreneurship and productivity of businesses in the primary sector, manufacturing and tourism”.