PM Mitsotakis and President of New Democracy launched the pre-election campaign, for the coming European elections in the presence of the President of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, and the President of the Republic of Cyprus, Nikos Christodoulides.
Kyriakos Mitsotakis referred to the challenges of the European elections, highlighting the achievements of the current leadership in various areas such as the economy, defense, immigration, and civil protection.
He made a strong mention of the dangers that a protest vote against populist forces—whether from the far right or the far left—would pose to Greece and Europe.
“The populist demagogues want to raise artificial divisions, which as [European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen] pointed out, was something that Greece has paid a high price for in the past. We will never allow the things that happened in the past decade to happen again,” he said.
“The economic crisis lasted longer in Greece because populism prevented the country from rallying. Syntagma Square is not far from here. We remember the two sides of the lie uniting in anti-European, supposedly anti-systemic demonstrations,” he continued, referencing the Indignant protests that took place there at the height of the crisis.
He said that Greece has progressed from laggard to leader in economic growth, with an increase in investments, a reduction of unemployment, an easing of public debt, and higher wages and pensions. “We are closing the gap with Europe, and we want to close it everywhere. In this effort, we have the support of the EU,” Mitsotakis said, accusing the opposition parties of seeking to stop this progress and of “polluting the political dialogue with toxicity.”
A special mention was made of Europe’s response to the COVID pandemic, the energy crisis, and its support for Ukraine in defense.
Finally, Mitsotakis directed his criticism at both the opposition party SYRIZA’s President, Stefanos Kassalakis, condemning what he saw as a toxic influence on political discourse, and at the President of PASOK, Nikos Androulakis, accusing him of attempting to align his party’s image with that of SYRIZA.
