In his incorporation bill OKAY to the AADE saying that “a decision has been made to put an end to lawlessness”, in the farmers’ payments which he estimated would be normalized by the end of the year, but also in the image of parades said the prime minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis in his introduction to cabinet which is held by video conference due to his illness with coronavirus.
Especially, regarding the celebrations throughout Greece for October 28, he emphasized that they were “the best response that citizens give and turn their backs on the toxicity and misery that some peddle.”
In fact, on the occasion of the image of students in Thessaloniki marching in the rain “fixed on duty” he sent the message that “it is a good example of how we should march on despite difficulties and odds and be sure that nothing will derail us.”
Listen to the prime minister’s speech
The entire Mitsotakis presentation
Initially, the prime minister referred to his illness with coronavirus, saying that “we decided that it was better to hold the ministerial meeting by teleconference until the few symptoms have completely subsided.”
He then referred to the celebrations “that ended yesterday with the impressive parade (in Thessaloniki) and the positive atmosphere” saying that it was “the best response that citizens give and turn their backs on the toxicity and misery that some peddle. Of course, they expect more and faster tangible results from the government.”
On the occasion of the two main topics of the agenda about which protothema.gr wrote earlier, the prime minister emphasized that “on the one hand we are expanding the front against bureaucracy in order for the state to become more citizen-friendly and on the other hand we are giving realistic and applicable answers to current challenges such as that of OPEKEPE”.
In this context, he spoke of “a set of regulations to further reduce bureaucracy that come to complement the many achievements of the digital state such as gov.gr, the awarding of pensions, the digital tracker that has already reduced the waiting time in hospital emergency rooms. The proposals we will discuss will move in this direction. There is scope for simplifying procedures to make the citizen’s everyday life simpler. Certificates are revoked.”
“The second initiative that we need to surround with legislative provisions concerns the integration of OPEKEPE into AADE, an initiative that wants to radically solve a perennial problem by cleaning up through the absorption of an organization important for the primary sector. We know that it is a difficult exercise, we know that from now on the new data require that every subsidy be preceded by a thorough check, but it was an initiative necessary to make a new beginning” added Mr. Mitsotakis.
He recalled, in fact, that “before the European prosecutor’s investigation, I had spoken about the need to break the Gordian link. The intervention was necessary with 20 million returned, dozens have been taken to court and this is the best proof that we absolutely mean that it is a political decision of the government to put an end to lawlessness and make a new beginning in the critical area of the distribution of European aid to farmers and breeders”.
“We knew well that such a reform on the fly while payments and negotiations with the European Union had to be made would cause failures and delays. The priority remains to speed up the payment of compensation to those who are really entitled to it. We have done in the last few days compensations have started to be paid to beneficiaries for food, for damages from Daniel. I want to believe that the situation will be normalized by the end of this year” added the prime minister.
“What will be left of the intervention will be a new era of transparency and credibility in the management of European resources. AADE has proven that it has both the sophisticated systems and the ability to check and cross-reference data and is therefore a safe guarantee for the future.”
Kyriakos Mitsotakis also presented a first account of it fire season “to identify gaps for the next one.” As he said, “this year, 2025, was disastrous for the Mediterranean basin, more than 10 million hectares were burned, three times more than the 20-year average. We managed and coped with losses slightly below the European average, 473,000 acres is not little, it is a lot but it was below average. We have made progress in the rapid detection and first attack of fires. 97% were contained while they were small and we can certainly learn a lot from dealing with fires this summer to be better for next year.”
THE prime minister he also pointed out that “this year and thanks to the traffic planning and the new KOK, the fatal accidents on the 4-day were less than half compared to last year when it was 3-day. I believe when we take stock of the year we will take strength that we are on the right track to change road behavior and reduce fatal accidents.”
In closing, Mr. Mitsotakis referred to the image he kept “apart from the impressive military parade where the citizens saw the new innovative weapons for the first time” saying that “I kept the image of the students the day before marching under the rain holding the flags absolutely committed to the sense of duty despite the weather difficulties. I think it’s a good analogy of how we should go despite the difficulties and the rains, rest assured that nothing will derail us.”