PM outlines way through new crisis
Responding to the unfolding global crisis triggered by the Russian invasion of Ukraine, Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis outlined the government’s strategy on three fronts in the coming period in a speech to Cabinet on Wednesday.
On the domestic front, he announced that measures to support businesses, households and farmers will continue as long as the energy disruption lasts, announcing that in the next 10 days “we will be able to announce and launch a full additional support program, utilizing both national and European resources.”
Kathimerini understands that the government will seek to emulate the model that was followed at Christmas, with a payment of 250 euros to low-income pensioners and the disabled, as well as a double guaranteed minimum income to about 250,000 beneficiaries.
The Christmas allowance was granted to about 800,000 pensioners with an individual taxable income of up to €7,200 and an annual family income of up to €14,400, with a parallel criterion of real estate of up to €200,000.
As for the European front, he outlined a six-point proposal to counter a jump in energy prices in the European Union. This proposal was enclosed in a letter he sent to European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen.
The third front concerns relations with Turkey. Referring to the meeting he is scheduled to have on Sunday with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, Mitsotakis reiterated his firm position that communication channels must remain open as Greece and Turkey are neighbors and partners in NATO, and that it is incumbent on both, given the turmoil created by the Ukraine war, “to keep our region away from any additional geopolitical crisis.”
Both countries, he said, must align themselves in the condemnation of revisionism and the violation of international law, but also of countries’ borders.
