Mitsotakis slams government’s economic record, repeats call for snap polls
Conservative opposition leader Kyriakos Mitsotakis has repeated his call for early elections while accusing Greece’s SYRIZA-led coalition of setting the economy back two years.
“We are ready to win the election and we are ready to govern,” Mitsotakis said in an interview with CNBC.
“I cannot force an election but I am fundamentally optimistic about the medium-to-long term prospects of this country,” Mitsotakis said.
Most opinion polls show his New Democracy party enjoying a solid lead over ruling SYRIZA.
Mitsotakis, who took over the party from former prime minister Antonis Samaras, also slammed the government’s economic record which he blamed on a wrong policy mix.
“We have to point out that Greece, back in 2014, was actually in the process of coming out of a very steep recession. As a result of the policies of the current government, we basically lost two years. We have had a recession in 2015, a recession in 2016 and we hope that we will have a mild recovery in 2017,” Mitsotakis told CNBC.
“The problem is that this government is implementing the wrong policies; is implementing the wrong fiscal mix; is overtaxing the productive economy and has not engaged in meaningful structural reforms that will attract foreign investment,” he said.
