PM Mitsotakis: ‘What comes first is to show self-restraint and to restart talks’

What comes first today is “to show self-restraint and restart talks. Further escalation will create even greater conditions of instability in an already highly burdened region,” said Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis in his weekly social media post on Sunday.

Commenting on the early morning US attack on underground nuclear facilities in Iran, Mitsotakis said that this issue would be discussed at the NATO Summit in The Hague (June 24-25) and the European Council in Brussels (June 26-27) this coming week. “Europe ought to rise to the occasion, to the benefit of global peace and prosperity,” he added.

In his weekly social media post rounding up the government’s work, the premier spoke of a complicated and worrisome global geopolitical situation. In terms of the mismanagement of EU agricultural funds by the OPEKEPE agency in Greece, he said the issue “is European, not just national. It is timeless and not related to recent years alone. And, in the end, deeply structural. It cannot be resolved with band-aids and aspirins.”

In addition, Mitsotakis stated “we are here to assume the responsibilities that fall to us, but primarily we are here to put and end to this unhealthy administrative and regulatory environment that allows some crafty people to embezzle public funds and defame Greece,” and reiterated the recent decision by the government to have the tax service (AADE) absorb OPEKEPE.

The PM also spoke of the government’s priority to encourage Greeks working abroad to return, the new triage system applied initially at Evangelismos Hospital that has improved waiting times for outpatient services and will be gradually applied elsewhere as well, and progress in the large-scale projects in Thessaloniki, particularly the flyover.