For the initiatives launched by the government in 2025 he refers to his established Sunday posting and blames it for irresponsible opposition. According to Kyriakos Mitsotakis, the solutions proposed by PASOK to the issues it highlights are inapplicable, while reference is made to the omissions that led to the fatal car accident in Chania. CORVERSE At the same time it refers to housing policy measures with my Home 2 programme last, but also to government actions on electricity prices, improving health services in hospitals and public transport. In detail the post of Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis Good day! In 2025 it has started dynamically, with many initiatives and developments, which I will share with you in today’s review. Let me warn you from the start: This is a detailed – perhaps a lengthy – review, but I promise it deserves your attention! I am immediately starting with my new home II programme, amounting to 2 billion euros, through which 20,000 citizens from 25 to 50 years old can obtain their own first home with a cheap loan. Interested parties may apply via gov.gr – the special platform opened on Wednesday – and with the same request address the banks. 42,359 requests have already been registered which clearly show the need for the programme and the attractiveness of the programme. What are the advantages of this programme? The loan covers up to 90% of the value of the property, as indicated in the purchase contract, while any remaining price will be covered by the buyer. In practice, this means that if the value of the property is 200,000 euros, the maximum amount of loan will be 180,000 euros (90% of the value). The maximum amount of the loan granted is EUR 190,000, but in any case 50% will have a zero interest rate and the remaining 50% will be charged at an interest rate that does not exceed the existing limits of housing loans. For my House II, we have extended the income limits to all categories of beneficiaries, while for special categories of citizens (three-year-olds, many children and families with two children in the municipalities of Orestiada, Soufli, Gedimotichou of the Evros Regional Unit) the amount of interest in the part of the bank loan that will have an interest rate will be 50%. CORVERSE “With the new programme, the housing policy for affordable housing that we have been implementing for the last 5.5 years, with total resources of almost 6.5 billion, continues to be more dynamic. Since “My Home I” already 7,608 fellow citizens have bought their new home, 7.681 have concluded a contract with the bank and 9.002 have been subject to the program. In another programme now, “I Save 2025”, applications have already exceeded 31,000. From Monday the submission of applications was also launched for the “I’m Changing Heating and Heating System” project of 223.2m euros, of which 44.6m euros are directed to energy-sensitive households (families with disabled, large families, low income households and affected by natural disasters). Over 100,000 of our fellow citizens have the opportunity to reduce their energy costs by strengthening the national effort for the green transition. Interest in this programme is also proving particularly strong, as applications have already exceeded 35,500. The week passed I sent a new letter to the President of the European Commission Ursula von der Leien on energy issues. The cause of the letter was the rally on electricity prices that affected most EU countries in the second half of 2024, resulting in the average wholesale price in Europe being significantly higher than in 2019. It is an indication that brave cuts are needed in the way the European electricity market operates to ensure what the Dragi report also highlights: the competitiveness and energy self-sufficiency of the European economy. On the occasion of the Commission’s new term of office, we have put forward concrete proposals so that the progress we are making in RES can be seen directly in the electricity bills and I am optimistic that Greek positions will be a guide to European initiatives again. In our country, electricity tariffs for households have stabilised. According to ELSTAT, the price index remained the same between 2023 and 2024, while the cumulative increase in final retail prices for consumers compared to 2019 is lower in Greece than the rest of the EU by 10 points. This also proves the success of ‘colourists’ tariffs that have intensified competition and facilitate price comparison between providers. I urge you to browse the highly useful and consumer-friendly website of RAAY, https://invoices.rae.gr/, where you can easily compare each provider’s prices and identify the best offers that can ensure you among other very competitive tariffs. Next issue, the new modern service “tap2ride”, i.e. the intact payments to the public transport of the capital (buses, trolleybuses, metro and trams) that includes Athens in the list of European metropolitan operators with practices of “smart” cities. Passengers can now use a bank card – in physical form, on their mobile or smartwatch – as a ticket to buses, trolleybuses, subways and trams, while having an economic advantage. What do I mean? At the end of each day it will be charged with an amount corresponding to the routes it has made, but based on the cheapest available financial package of OASA. The passenger will not need to stand on the machine to issue a ticket, nor to search for ticket points or to know the available travel products to choose the appropriate one. He’ll be charged, I say, with the cheapest fare. The intact payments had started piloting last April on the Airport bus lines and to date more than 90,000 passengers had selected them. The new service is part of the overall planning we are implementing to upgrade public transport and improve the everyday life of the citizen. I would remind you that there are already 278 new buses, anti-pollution technology, an additional 127 new buses are in the OSY carriageway and the procedures for their launch are proceeding. Our goal is, by the end of this summer, to move a total of 950 new vehicles, substantially upgrading the move to the city. At the same time, on Metro Line 1, 14 trains are erected and 9 others upgraded, so that several of them enter into circulation within 2025. Interventions will also be made for Metro Lines 2 and 3, while in line 4 the metrodontikas will have completed their work in 2026. I continue with the new 70m-euro programme to create an additional 20,000 places in nursery and early childhood care centres for infants and infants from 2 months to 2.5 years old. Here, too, resources come from the Recovery and Durability Fund, highlighting the social dimension of our plan which destroys the unfair and out-of-reality attacks of the opposition that concern the few and the possessors. The program is addressed to the Municipalities and to the owners of nursery, nursery and kindergartens, in order to increase the places in existing municipal stations or create new ones. It is another intervention to facilitate the everyday life of working parents. This year, let me point out, the budget for vouchers has increased, approaching EUR 380 million! We care for all children, especially children with disabilities. In this context, we increase the monthly compensation to professional contractors caring for disabled children from EUR 1,561 to EUR 1,850. In addition, for the first time, foster parents will be able to receive special training in collaboration with public authorities. Universities, such as the University of Western Attica, can meet the increased needs of disabled children. It is another program of our National Strategy on the Rights of individuals that helps to remove obstacles to their social integration, offering them a stable and safe family environment. We want, and that’s why we work, “One Greece with everyone, for everyone”. To come now to the measures to improve the vicarage in Attica hospitals and the new initiatives of the Ministry of Health. Interventions are intended to reduce as much as possible the waiting time for citizens and not to exceed 5 hours. Today, waiting times in some cases are particularly long, which causes discomfort to patients and of course is not acceptable. So what do we do? We strengthen Emergency Departments with more staff, improve their building infrastructure and equipment and use technology to become more efficient. With the new digital tracking system, we will be able to monitor patient waiting times and intervene immediately where necessary. In addition, Red Cross volunteers will be in the TEPs, helping to better organize and serve citizens. But we are also doing one more thing: we are introducing selected Health Centers into the battle of the newspapers, so that they can function supportively in hospitals. At the same time, we are strengthening them with additional staff – plus permanent staff recruitment – for better and faster service to citizens. This facilitates access to health services and reduces the pressure on hospitals. Our goal is a health system that respects people, emphasising immediate and quality care. And another thing about mental health this time. Since 1 February the National Network of Mental Health Services has been in operation, with 7 regional networks corresponding to the country’s Health Regions. One of the changes that will accompany their operation is that, when a sufferer needs compulsory hospitalization under a prosecutor’s order, the order will ask for him to be hospitalized as close as possible to his place of residence, thus limiting the suffering and expenses for his relatives. I am going through the serious issue that arose with the unduly large increases in the premiums of long-term health contracts. We were committed to government intervention, and that’s how it happened. After the government’s placement, insurance companies went on to voluntary discounts of 50% for the long term contracts of 2025, recognizing that we need to look again at the factors that shape insurance prices, so that both the private health market and the insurance market operate with competition and without unfair practices. On Thursday, the Minister of Development presented to the House an amendment which introduces greater transparency in charges in both sectors, but also a new, more complex indicator, which will record market trends more objectively from 2026. I repeat to those who have not understood it: Greece is not a banana. Competition must operate as in every European country. As for PASOK, who insists on an irresponsible opposition, let me say that the solutions it proposes to issues it highlights, such as banking or insurance companies now, are also inapplicable outside the Community framework. Populism is also known for asking reasonable questions, but it does not do so well when it is called upon to provide practical solutions. The impunity of perjured civil servants is a timeless pathogen that undermines citizens’ confidence in the State. They are rightly resented, when disciplinary council procedures last between 3 and 7 years, even for serious cases, and often end up in “hadi” penalties. I was concerned about this a decade ago when I was Minister of Administrative Reform. At the time, for the first time, we had recorded all outstanding disciplinary cases. But the truth is that despite the progress that has been made, today we have more than two and a half thousand cases, which continue to stagnate in 92 disciplinary boards, half of which have not even begun the interrogation process, no rapporteur has been appointed and often the time to complete the proceedings can exceed five years. We are therefore going to review the way in which public disciplinary boards operate: hereafter, there will be a few disciplinary boards with full and exclusive employment with these matters, which will be only staffed by officials of the Legal Council of the State and not by officials themselves. A central digital tracking register of the start and end of each case is established to monitor the duration of its development and conclusion, we set limits for the adoption of the relevant decisions, with the aim of completing the procedures in 3 months. While unnecessary stages are removed in the process and sanctions are being tightened up. We want the State to operate transparent and accountable, rewarding good civil servants, but imposing fair and substantial sanctions on the few who violate their oath. I mentioned last Sunday the stricter rules of the new Road Traffic Code for offender drivers who will be subject to penalties corresponding to the seriousness of any infringement that are also categorized according to their risk. Penalties will even escalate for those who frequently fall victim to violations and who are now focusing on the driver. The recent fatal car accident in Crete with the perpetrator of a man under the influence of alcohol and the victim of the 22 year old Panayiotis, is not just another tragic loss. It is a blatant reminder of road brutality that dominates our roads and the urgency for a change of mind and stricter observance of rules. We cannot close our eyes to unconscious drivers who drive drunk, violate speed limits or ignore the safety of others. This behavior is killing. But responsibility doesn’t stop there. They also concern police bodies, which must show consistency and rigour, but also police administrations, who have the final responsibility for how their services operate. That is why I asked for the heads of the police department to change. I am categorical in this: roads safe for everyone is not luxury. It’s an obligation. I close today’s review with two major distinctions for Greece. The first concerns satellite communications and the choice of our country to install the European Union’s secure satellite communications programme, GOVSATCOM. By decision of the President of the EU, Greece together with Germany assumes a central role in the implementation of this critical security infrastructure until 2051. What will this program do? In essence, it will ensure secure satellite communications to protect critical services from external threats. It is a great success for our country that strengthens the geopolitical position of our country, highlighting it as a key player in the security architecture of the European Union. At the same time, it is a project that is expected to attract significant investment and skilled personnel in the field of space technology, strengthening the domestic innovation ecosystem. The second important distinction concerns the area of culture, namely 39th European Film Awards in 2027 which will be hosted in Athens! This is the first time that the top event of the European Cinema will take place in a city in southeastern Europe, and that is why they deserve a lot of muscle at the Ministry of Culture and the Greek Film Center, Audiovisual Media and Creation – Creative Greece that worked hard for this purpose. The award ceremony will take place at Stavros Niarchos Cultural Centre, with the presence of 1,300 international guests, members of the Academy, representatives of the European film community and international media. At the same time, events will be held throughout the city dedicated to the great celebration of the European Cinema, honoring the art, creativity, talent and spirit of innovation of artists from all over Europe. It was indeed a great review! I’m closing here, thank you for your time. Good Sunday! “
Mitsotakis: The solutions proposed by PASOK to issues it highlights are inapplicable
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