Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis expressed his confidence that the New Democracy party would do very well in the European Parliament elections on June 9, at a tour of the town of Makri near Alexandroupolis on Tuesday.
"If some people want to turn these elections into a referendum against the government, I am absolutely certain they will receive the answer they deserve in the ballot box," Mitsotakis said, as "citizens have entrusted us with a very high percentage a year ago and delivered a four-year mandate to us to change the country and bring it steadily closer to Europe. I can reassure you we are serving this mandate."
Mitsotakis said he always began his preelection tour of Greece from Evros, and spoke of the efforts to stem migration flows in 2020 from Turkiye, adding that Greece was possibly the only European country where the migration issue was no longer a subject of election campaigns "because we simply managed to control the issue, protecting our borders effectively, doing our job and honoring our obligation before the Greek people, especially the border residents."
Mitsotakis also spoke of efforts to convince the European Commission, Council, and Parliament that Europe must resolve the issue of protecting its external borders. The new migration plan approved recently is "fully aligned with the Greek priorities," he said. The European Commission must fund projects like the Evros fence that acts as a deterrent to migration flows, he added.
Referring to his meeting with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan in Ankara on Monday, the Greek PM said Greece "always seeks good relations with Turkiye" without changing its set positions, while "always protecting its national sovereignty and sovereign rights with confidence."
Speaking of last year's fires and their extensive destruction, he said that several government initiatives included a committee to restore Evros working under a regular supervision by the government.
Among other issues, he touched on the high cost of living, which he said will slowly start improving, and to the lower unemployment rate since 2019, on the issue of wages, health services, and education. "I did not say that Greece became a paradise, but what I can say with absolute conviction is that Greece in 2024 bears no relation to Greece in 2019. It is a much better country," he concluded.