Mitsotakis defends policy, warns public against complacency

After announcing that restrictions on movements will be eased at the weekend and that retail will tentatively reopen on Monday, Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis defended his government policies against the pandemic, while warning the public against complacency.

“New conditions require new decisions,” Mitsotakis said in Parliament on Friday, adding that the government was not opening up economic and social life, but only “readjusting activities.”

The conservative premier said all countries had been forced to adapt their policies to changing circumstances and data.

“We ought to adapt, to evaluate measures and to scrap measures that proved ineffective,” he said.

“We are entering a new phase, with different characteristics and a more infectious mutation. The [warm] weather is on our side. Public fatigue has intensified, but we now have the vaccines,” he said.

However, as his government prepared to lift some of the restrictions, Mitsotakis also warned the public against complacency in taking key preventive and precautionary measures to help curb the spread of the virus. 

“More freedom comes with more responsibility,” he said.