By Demetris Nellas for Kathimerini
Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis called on Greek people Saturday to enter into a “Progress and Prosperity Pact” that will place the country into a stronger position into the 2030s.
He emphasized medium-term goals – specifically, over the next four years – but did not neglect immediate measures designed to benefit a good chunk of the electorate – professionals, small-business owners, the young, pensioners and others – that he will face in a few months’ time, as he attempts to win a rare third consecutive term.
At the start of his keynote speech at the Thessaloniki International Fair, Mitsotakis mentioned it was the eighth consecutive year he was taking the podium; he felt no need to add, and the last before the next national election a few months from now.
Throughout his speech, Mitsotakis hammered on the need for stability, normality, a steady and strong government, themes that will no doubt dominate his upcoming electoral campaign, in which he will embark as a front-runner but by no means assured of a majority in parliament. And even though he said that the government’s “only adversary are the problems” and challenges lying ahead, he took several swipes at the opposition, especially his predecessor Alexis Tsipras, without uttering his name once. He accused him, as he did the whole opposition, of irresponsible promises without regard to their cost and he contrasted their policies with those of the Tsipras government, as in when he promised better pensions and lower taxes. Mitsotakis, when talking about energy and energy prices, took care to note how the dominant player in the sector, the formerly state-owned Public Power Corporation which Tsipras recently said should revert to public control, is now a strong, innovative enterprise. Left unsaid was that the company, under Tsipras, had teetered on the verge of bankruptcy.
“The country needs a strong government that will keep it far from a rudderless state or party haggling that would confine it into inertia and timidity, with interminable consultations and compromises. I’m talking about clear solutions and clear prospects,” he said, exorcising the likelihood of an electoral result with no clear winner and the threat of weak, unstable coalitions.
Some voters, Mitsotakis said, might be tempted to send a protest message through their vote. The risk is that no one will be around to receive it the following day.
Mitsotakis made what he called specific commitments for a possible third term: the jobless rate, already down to 7.9% from 18% when he took over in July 2019, will drop to 6%, near the European Union average; annual growth will top 2%, twice the EU pace; the debt will drop from a current 143.5% of the Gross Domestic Product (it had peaked at 209.4% in 2020) to below 120% in 2029 and below 110% in 2030; Greece’s debt, which was assessed at investment grade by the major ratings agencies between October 2023 and March 2025, will reach A-levels; investment will reach €65 billion from €46 billion; and, more relevant to voters, the average monthly wage will reach €1,800. “In 18 months, there will be no more triple-digit wages,” he said, that is, below €1,000 per month. Manufacturing’s share of GDP, currently hovering at or below 9% will reach 12%. Greece, a notorious laggard in the speed at which courts resolve cases, will be among the top 10 in the EU and citizens will be able to follow progress of their cases online.
Mitsotakis admitted the obligatory “mistakes” in governing, said there were many instances of mismanagement and that the deep state is tough to crack, seven years into his administration. But he added that the balance sheet of his governance was overwhelmingly positive.
He also listed several challenges awaiting: resilience against the climate crisis; water management, by concentrating the fragmented landscape outside the two major cities; improving schools, especially technical education, which offers so much opportunity and is unfairly stigmatized compared to the general high schools that lead to state universities; training all civil servants to use artificial intelligence tools to improve productivity; and boost AI use by businesses, especially the many small ones.
“My experience has made me far more determined to make daring reforms,” Mitsotakis said toward the end of his speech.
Besides the medium-term goals, the prime minister touted a cascade of measures to boost the incomes of critical components of the electorate – especially professionals, farmers, pensioners, civil servants and young parents.
Professionals and small business owners – more than 155,000 of them, Mitsotakis said – will benefit from lower levels of “imputed income,” a measure designed to fight tax evasion by upwardly revising declared incomes to reflect ownership of material and immaterial possessions and, for businesses, turnover and the number of employees.
Farmers with an income up to €20,000 will no longer pay taxes; currently, a farmer with an annual income of exactly €20,000 pays €1,183.
Mitsotakis also promised EU help for livestock owners who lost their flocks, mostly sheep and goats, to disease.
The annual income support paid to the over-65s each November will increase from €300 to €400.
For civil servants, Mitsotakis promised a “Christmas bonus” of at least €500 from 2027, which will be taken into account for determining their pensions.
New parents will be encouraged to open accounts in which their deposits, up to €1,200 annually, will be matched by the government. Also, parents of three children will pay no tax on the first €20,000 of their income.
For private sector employees, the minimum wage will exceed €950 in 2027 and reach €1,000 in early 2028.
People with special needs will see their benefits permanently indexed to inflation.
Other measures, already announced, include a gradual abolition of the property tax for small communities (up to 2,000 residents or 2,200 in some localities) and a new subsidized program of low-rate mortgages. On the other hand, residents from outside the EU who buy properties will see the property transfer tax raised from 3% to 15%. Mitsotakis said that while such investors from other countries – he specifically mentioned China, Turkey and Israel – are “welcome,” he also noted that their investments had driven property prices up, putting them out of reach for a sizable chunk of local prospective buyers.
All these financial measures will be detailed by Ministry of Finance officials Monday.
All these handouts, Mitsotakis said, will never compromise the hard-achieved goal of fiscal stability: he noted, with a sideways swipe at opposition promises, that European Union rules limit spending increases and that anyone who deviates is placed under close supervision, evoking the specter of Greece’s dependence on, and subject to the demands of, its creditors during the financial crisis of the 2010s.
The PM further noted that, thanks to his policies, the formerly bankrupt country, whose Treasury bonds were rated as junk for well over a decade, now borrows at lower rates than four of the G7 countries.
