Behaviour like that of former minister Avgenakis ‘cannot be tolerated’, Mitsotakis says

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Following the European Parliament elections, the government’s attention will be fully focused on solving the problems of day-to-day life, especially high prices, Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis said on Friday, at the start of his regular monthly briefing of President of the Hellenic Republic Katerina Sakellaropoulou.

The prime minister also referred to the incident involving MP and former minister Lefteris Avgenakis, noting that such behaviour cannot be tolerated and “is damaging for the credibility of the political system as a whole.”

He said it was encouraging that the figures were indicating an actual drop of prices on supermarket shelves, not just a slowing of inflation, noting that this was the first sign that the measures against high prices were starting to produce results.

“Obviously, our efforts will continue until inflation has returned to pre-crisis levels and we will continue to insist on a market that operates with transparency, with the right rules, with true competition, without oligopolies and monopolies,” he added.

Mitsotakis said that he intends to continue pursuing the effort for European action to eliminate the differentiated prices charged by multinationals within the EU, which led to those in the periphery paying more for the same products, noting that the European Commission’s president had acknowledged his arguments as correct.

Regarding the incident with Avgenakis, who was ejected from New Democracy’s parliamentary group after he accosted an employee at the airport and forcibly grabbed his phone, Mitsotakis said this concerned him greatly and was linked to the message sent by voters in the European Parliament elections.

“The citizens demand of the government and the political system efficiency, first and foremost. They also have high demands, however, regarding each politician’s behaviour and nothing aggravates them more, I think, than behaviours by those who have power that project an image that that politicians are in a different class of citizens, who can behave in a way that is different from that of any other citizen. Such behaviours cannot be tolerated, because they injure the credibility of the political system as a whole and the great effort we are making to rebuild relations of trust with the citizens,” he said.

Mitsotakis stressed that he will insist on matters of ethics and political behaviour, noting that these often had greater importance in people’s minds than efficiency.

The prime minister also referred to the new buses bought for the public transport fleets in Athens and Thessaloniki, after many years of neglect, noting that 900 new buses are expected to be in circulation by the end of 2025, not only replacing the older vehicles but increasing their total number and allowing more frequent services.

On the 10,000 teachers being hired by the education ministry, he said that more than half were replacing teachers who have retired.

President Sakellaropoulou, on her part, said that “security and a sense of trust are the foundation of coexistence and social cohesion,” calling for action to combat inequality, protect the middle class and vulnerable groups and emphasising the need to combat high prices, “which undermine households’ living standards and make daily life so difficult.”
She stressed the importance of equal access to education, public health, public transport, saying that public services must be of high quality and that no one must be made to feel alone or a “second-class citizen”.

Source: ANA – MPA

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