Mitsotakis: Victory over populism serves as lesson for liberal democracies
Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis insisted Tuesday that Greece will be able to regain investment grade with a strong New Democracy government and that his “his victory over populism in Greece” serves as a lesson “for other liberal democracies.”
“If you deliver real change for people, people will reward you,” he told CNN’s Christiane Amanpour.
He said his defeat of “the populist opposition for a second time in a row” had “essentially destroyed” main opposition SYRIZA.
“Something happened in Greece that will resonate across other liberal democracies when it comes to the inherent fight between people who are focused on offering solutions and those who are engaged in the lovely politics of offering empty promises,” he said.
He had “big ambitions” for New Democracy’s second term. He wanted to “transform” the country but was aware that he needed “at least two terms to do that.”
“We need to have growth rates that are significantly higher than the eurozone average, which means more investment and more job creation.
“At the same time, I’m also very much advocating a very progressive agenda when it comes to public health, public education and the reduction of inequalities. If you ask me what my one overarching priority is it would be to deliver higher growth rates by reducing inequality at the same time.”
He said his government had reduced inequality by “offering targeted assistance during the pandemic and during the cost-of-living crisis to those who required it the most.”
The green and digital agenda would also remain priorities, he said, noting that there are still “lots of issues with the hardcore public sector which we need to address.”
When shown footage from a recent New York Times report into alleged illegal pushbacks of migrants in the Aegean, Mitsotakis said he had ordered an investigation into the incident.
He described pushbacks as a “completely unacceptable practice” but also condemned “pushforwards” from the Turkish side.
