Party leaders continue on campaign trail
With 16 days to go to the polls “I want to speak only about the future; we have a plan and a program,” Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis has said on a visit to Amaliada and Pyrgos, in the northwestern Peloponnese, on Friday.
Mitsotakis referred to the opposition and the party leaders’ TV debate on May 10 and expressed the hope that “they have the courage to debate policy commitments.”
The premier highlighted the restart of the Patras-Pyrgos highway project that will also help reduce fatal road accidents as proof of fulfilling his government’s promises to the region.
He also spoke about his commitment to raising salaries by 25% if he wins a second four-year term. He wanted the average monthly wages to rise to 1,500 euros and the minimum one to 950 euros, noting that under his government the minimum wage had already risen from 650 euros to 780 euros a month.
“Remember who cut your EKAS (special solidarity) bonus, who wrecked pensions. This ‘slaughter’ of pensioners has a name,” he said, addressing pensioners in his audience, naming former Labor and Social Insurance Minister Giorgos Katrougalos and SYRIZA leader Alexis Tsipras.
SYRIZA leader Alexis Tsipras warned that if Mitsotakis comes first in the upcoming elections, “he will form a patchwork government with blackmail and pressure.”
Speaking from his ancestral town of Arta, Tsipras said Greece “is not anyone’s property. Some were born princes and believe that the state and the country belongs to them. I come from a modest and small village on Mount Tzoumerka.”
Expressing certainty that his party will top the polls in the region, he called on voters to defeat “the cartels, which made millions from the crisis and bring change that the country needs.”
Greece will become red, he said, referring to the party’s colors, because “Greece wants change, a chance to breathe, and justice,” he underlined.
Meanwhile, PASOK announced a 12-point election manifesto which party leader Nikos Androulakis described as a “gospel for the programmatic negotiation and formation of a cooperation government.” [AMNA]
