Mitsotakis: Greece needs to continue on path to innovation

The government has taken significant steps to reduce the national debt, to attract investments and create new jobs, and to support households and the country needs to stay on that path, Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis told the Delphi Economic Forum on Friday.

“There is only one path – innovation, and increasing wages, both the minimum one and the average one, by 25%,” Mitsotakis said, in conversation with Peter Spiegel, US managing editor of the Financial Times.

Mitsotakis said that inflation is not a Greek phenomenon alone, and recognized the pressure it placed on citizens. The government has supported them by creating a fiscal space, he said.

Speaking of his government’s four-year term, he referred to investments in Greece in tourism and by pharmaceutical companies among others, and the digitization of public administration which must be fully digitized by 2027. In addition, the justice system needs to speed up with the hearing on cases and issuing rulings to reach European averages.

The premier also mentioned the lessons learned from the deadly train collision at Tempe and wiretapping by the National Intelligence Service, where the government “learned their lesson and changed everything.”

Referring to Turkey, he said that the neighboring country “must make a strategic decision: does it want to resolve the Cyprus issue and change its stance with the West, or will it continue a policy that is closer to China and Russia? They have painted Greek islands in their own colors on the Turkish map, and that is not positive. Perhaps they will return to reality after the elections. We are not discussing issues of borders and national sovereignty. There is only one issue, that of maritime zones. nothing else, I’m clear on that.”

Mitsotakis said he does not favor coalition governments but the decision rested in the hands of voters.

Commenting on SYRIZA leader Alexis Tsipras, Mitsotakis said he would never underestimate him. “He has exhibited political skill. But as prime minister, he was catastrophic. We have a lot of leading actors,” he said, also referring to MeRA25 leader Yanis Varoufakis and the “Dimitra” economic system he is promoting.

“Let us not forget what happened in 2015. We will either move Greece forward or backward,” he said. [AMNA]