PM Mitsotakis: ‘We want the same percentage we won in the previous Europarliament elections’

Voters should see the whole picture when they go to cast their ballot in the European Parliament elections on June 9, Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis said in an interview on Thursday.

Athens, Greece.– peaking to Skai TV and journalist Sia Kosioni on the main evening newscast, Mitsotakis addressed the voters planning to vote for far-right parties and called them to see the whole picture, and not resort to cheap messages. Voters, he underlined, should “very carefully consider whether we want parties in parliament that advocate for brutal violence and intolerant racist discourse with division and hatred.”

Commenting on Wednesday’s incident where Independent MP Konstantinos Floros, formerly of Spartiates party, was charged with physically attacking fellow MP of Elliniki Lysi Vassilis Grammenos in parliament, the PM described it as “hair-raising and revealing: the temple of democracy cannot turn into a boxing arena.” The incident, he added, revealed what is taking place in the far-right faction, describing it as a conglomeration of parties built on lies and violence.

Referring also to Elliniki Lysi party, he said that “whoever saw what happened in parliament may reach their own conclusions about the degree to which these parties represent Christianity and patriotism. There are a lot of so-called patriots out there.” New Democracy (ND) stood up before far-right Spartiates from the very start with specific actions, Mitsotakis said, adding that he feels vindicated “by the fact that this specific formation is banned from Europarliamentary elections.”

Speaking of his own party, he said ND’s ballot lists were diverse, and added that he wanted to reach the same percentage the party garnered in the last Europarliamentary elections (it rose to 33.12% and gained 8 seats in the European Parliament). “What I want is to elect as many Eurodeputies as possible,” the Greek PM said, adding, “We want the best result; but if it is not good, our lives will be harder but the government will not fall, nor will we have (national) elections.”

Speaking of the economy, Mitsotakis acknowledged high prices as a huge issue, and knew how squeezed households were. He said there is no magic formula, but underlined that “the better the economy does, the more salaries will rise. There are indications that inflation is receding. Competition is one of the answers, and it worked in electricity bills – prices in energy are lower because competition worked out, and because we supported households. We also had European Union support.”

Referring to the Tempi train collision in February 2023, Mitsotakis said he wanted justice to be meted out, more so in order to “put an end to unbelievable conspiracy theories that are offensive and which destroy relationships of trust in politics.”

Commenting on a rule of law, he said “there is no perfect rule of law, and that is why the European Commission proposes improvements for all states. It is clear we have space to improve, but Greece is not Hungary.”

The prime minister ruled out any thoughts about a cabinet reshuffle while looking ahead at Europarliamentary elections, and he refuted media reports that he was aiming for the European Commission presidency. “There is no such issue for me,” he said, adding that “discussion of a European position honors me but does not concern me at all.”

In addition, Mitsotakis said Greece would not send Patriot missiles to Ukraine or S300s, even though such a request had been made.

Asked about his upcoming visit to Ankara in May, to meet Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, he said Greece would continue rapprochement with Turkiye, which rapprochement has given concrete results to now. He noted that there have been no violations of Greek airspace for the last 12 months, while migration flows have dropped. He also asserted that the protected marine parks project in the Aegean Sea would go ahead. “Just because we have our disagreements with Turkiye doe not mean that we cannot continue to talk,” he said.

source:amna.gr