PM dismisses snap poll rumors, says will not ‘jeopardize country’s stability’

Greece will not be heading to elections before the spring of 2023, Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis said on Thursday, adding that he is prepared to assume the cost of resisting pressure for snap polls for the sake of stability, and plans to see the conservative government through its four-term.

“I’m taking the risk of stability. If this means paying the political cost because of a difficult winter, so be it,” he said in an interview with Skai TV, laying to rest suggestions that he will call early elections for September or October to strengthen the government’s position ahead of the looming energy crisis and its impact on prices and households.

“I am not looking at opinion polls for a clearing to call early elections,” he said.

Noting that – speculation regarding timing aside – Greece is indeed entering pre-election mode in the runup to spring, Mitsotakis also issued a tacit warning to his ministers, saying that this cannot mean a slowdown in the government’s reform profram.

“Not only have we not shifted down a gear, but we have actually accelerated our work,” he said.

Stressing that Greece needs a stable, single-party government, Mitsotakis described the current electoral system of simple proportional representation as a “bomb” that will almost certainly leave the country in the hands of an interim government for a period between the two polls.

“We have a strong parliamentary majority, and it is my duty to safeguard the country’s stability,” Mitsotakis said of his government, which has 157 MPs in the 300-seat House.

“I am determined to assume any cost, but I will not jeopardize the country’s stability at the service of party interests,” the prime minister stressed, a day after a heated session in Parliament, where he came under renewed pressure from the opposition to call early elections.