Mr. Mitsotakis in the Washington Post: ‘Greece will be able to produce primary surplus from 2023’

“The economy is recovering dramatically, I expect the growth rate to exceed 7% in 2021 and 5% in 2022,” said Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis in an interview with the Washington Post and Lally Weymouth.

In the interview published entitled “Greece was facing very serious problems. How Greece returned to a positive course” (Greece did in right trouble. How did it right the ship), Kyriakos Mitsotakis points out that his goal is for Greece to become the success story of the Eurozone. “Unemployment is falling and young Greeks are returning to the country for the first time,” he said.

Asked about the investment and interest of companies such as Microsoft, Amazon and Tesla, the Prime Minister replied that “all the big technology companies are now turning their eyes to Greece. The reason they do it is mainly due to our human capital.” .

Asked about the strict fiscal rules of the Eurozone and the debt, the Prime Minister noted that during the pandemic these rules did not apply, which allowed “the allocation of significant resources to strengthen economies”.

He adds that in Greece unemployment fell amid a pandemic and stresses that the initial rules were too rigid. “They imposed very heavy burdens on the countries with the highest debt. My view is that the country needs to grow. The more the economy grows, the better our fiscal position will be,” said Kyriakos Mitsotakis, adding that growth is the debt solution and that Greece “will be able to produce primary surplus by 2023”.

Speaking about the course of the pandemic in Greece and Europe, the Prime Minister notes: “We are now seeing an upsurge, but we will probably see the peak by mid-December. If you look at our performance since the beginning of the pandemic, we did better than most European “countries, which was a surprise given that we had a relatively underfunded healthcare system. Today, 90% of people in the ICU are unvaccinated.”

Kyriakos Mitsotakis talks about the weight given to vaccinations with the third dose, the fact that the certificate of entry indoors for vaccinated over 60 years ceases to be valid seven months from its issuance and adds: “The rate of vaccination of the adult population is 73%. We want to reach 80% “.

Asked by journalist Lally Weymouth what could happen “if Turkey stops its aggressive behavior in the Aegean”, the Prime Minister replied: “If Turkey continues its aggressive behavior, there may be consequences for it – sanctions by “On the other hand, if Turkey stops its aggressive behavior in the Aegean and the eastern Mediterranean, there is room for us to sit at the table and resolve our differences.”

Regarding immigration, the Prime Minister first states that “we must agree that no country has the right to instrumentalize migrants.” He points out that “Greece’s borders are also Europe’s borders” and explains that “if we allow uncontrolled flows of migrants to Europe, we will have a repeat of 2015 and this will be the day the Schengen Agreement collapses, because everyone will start imposing internal restrictions on the movement of people within Europe “.

Responding to a question about reports accusing Greece of turning away refugees trying to cross its borders, the Prime Minister pointed out the contradiction between those who “point the finger at Greece, while they do not point the finger at Turkey, a country that involved in blatant human rights violations “.

Speaking about the Mutual Defense Cooperation Agreement with the United States, Kyriakos Mitsotakis expressed Greece’s satisfaction and stressed the importance of new US bases such as “the port of Alexandroupolis, located in northeastern Greece, very close to Turkey. It will be the a natural point of entry for US or NATO troops in the Eastern Europe region. ”

“Are you planning to visit the United States officially?” The journalist asked to receive the following response from the Prime Minister: our area and is very close to the Greek American community. ”