Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis spoke on Monday in Nikea, a suburb of Piraeus, at one of the scheduled events in preparation of the New Democracy party congress on May 6-8.
He referred to the rise to the lowest monthly wages that will kick in on May 1, and said it would be the second time in a year such a rise is implemented. This particular one, he noted, is taking into account businesses' competitive ability and inflation, which is eroding available income, and serves as a "development dividend that should be distributed fairly, not just to businesses, but to workers as well."
The most effective social policy is reducing unemployment and creating new and desirable jobs, underlined the premier, noting the drop in Greek unemployment from 17.2% in 2019 to 12.8% this year. "I will not be happy until this rate drops to below the European average," he said. (According to the European statistics agency, EU unemployment was 6.8% in February 2022.)
Commenting on the party congress SYRIZA held this past weekend, Mitsotakis said, "It would be better they held one every year to remind us what we escaped from - an unbearable mix of toxicity, vulgarity, populism and tensions that does not befit any main opposition party."
In a reference to national elections in 2023, he said, "If we managed to achieve so much in the midst of a pandemic, an invasion at the Evros borders, and a profound economic crisis, imagine what we can achieve in eight years", or a second term.