“We are ready in the first three months of 2025 to finally sign the contract for the main portion of the VOAK,” the Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis announced during a visit to Rethymnon in early December. He added that works of national importance in Crete, with a budget of millions of euros, are being scheduled for the first time. According to APE-MPE, the Prime Minister said that the government has established from live “fermentation” with the local communities which projects need to be prioritised, noting that the government’s new platform erga.gov.gr constitutes a comprehensive digital repository of works, “answering to one of the basic requirements of government, which is accountability”.

“Often, when we have these meetings, citizens ask us in surprise: ‘But what’s going on, why are you here, are you planning a snap election?’ And we tell them: ‘No, quite the opposite. We are here because these works require planning and because in the end we will be judged on our words and actions not only at a national but at a regional and local level, in the national elections which will take place in the spring of 2027,’ ” he said.

Major projects in Crete
Noting that works of national importance are being undertaken for the first time in Crete, the Prime Minister said: “From the Recovery Fund alone we have managed to secure almost €900 million for projects and activities related to Crete.” Crete is the third region out the country’s 13 in competitiveness, he said, but it is far behind in critical infrastructure works.

Referring to the North Road Axis (VOAK), he said that no other project has had or has its complexity and that there are now open work sites on the sections running between Hersonissos and Agios Nikolaos. “And we are ready in the first three months to finally sign the contract for the main portion of the VOAK, connecting Chania-Heraklion-Hersonissos,” he concluded, emphasising that it is a project of major technical difficulty and very great cost.

“At the moment Crete is absorbing proportionately by far the largest amount of all the Regions from public and European funds, not because as a Cretan I want to help my homeland, but because it really deserves it as it has remained so far behind, through the fault of some people, though I don’t want now to dwell on the past. So we are running to catch up lost ground,” he said finally.

Road safety measures
Waxing passionate on the subject of road accidents, the Prime Minister said that with the signing of the contracts for the main section of the VOAK from Chania to Hersonissos, and for the extension to Kissamos, the government will also take immediate measures “to make this old and troubled highway as safe as possible”. He noted that when this was done on the Patras-Pyrgos motorway the result was a drastic, almost a total reduction in fatal accidents.

“We will do the same at five places which the Police have pointed out to us. However, let me make an appeal: whatever the government does, we can’t have people, young kids especially, losing their lives from head injuries because they are not wearing a helmet. It’s not a question of punishment, for God’s sake. It’s not a question of increasing fines or taking away their motorbikes. It just won’t do. At the moment, Greece is above the European average for traumatic brain injuries to bike riders who are not wearing helmets, as they should.”

“So let me make an appeal to you: we will do what should be done, but it is something which needs to become common property for us all, especially here in Crete where we have a tendency to be more ‘unruly’. And it relates particularly – I’m looking at the mayors here – to the mountainous areas, where especially in small villages, young kids take cars, tractors, motorbikes. Put some effort into it, for God’s sake. We can’t do everything by ourselves as the central power,” he said.

The Prime Minister also said that the new airport at Kastelli, which will be ready in 2027, is the largest construction site in the country along with Line 4 of the Athens Metro, and undoubtedly the largest in the country by area: “It will be a lot more expensive than we expected. Why? As the minister said, on the one hand because we decided to make it bigger – rightly I believe – as we are planning an airport for the next 50 years, not for the next 10 years, and because there were additional requirements relating to access, and the protection of the cultural treasures which were found. All those things cost money. And clearly we are securing the funds for this so that Crete will have the most modern airport in the Mediterranean, when if all goes well it is completed in 2027.”

Other infrastructure projects
The Prime Minister referred to other major infrastructure projects on the island including the electrical interconnector which he said “breaks the energy isolation of Crete” and is a project of tremendous importance not only for the island but for the stability of the country’s electrical power system.

He also mentioned three major works relating to the irrigation network which are getting under way for the first time, at Tavronitis, Bramiana at Ierapetra, and Plati on the Lasithi Plateau, the latter being a project which will take five years to complete but will be a major resource for the future. “Eighty-five per cent of water goes on irrigation and only 12 per cent on mains water supplies, so the proper management of irrigation resources must be our major concern,” he said.

Noting that the extension of the tourist season is something which is already happening in Crete, he said that the handicrafts sector is something which could be developed. It is a tremendous reservoir of cultural riches and a way of keeping people in the region and in our villages, giving new prospects for employment. “It is something which I have a great belief in, it is a force which is developing worldwide. Greece has a tremendous tradition and tremendous wealth in the sector, especially in Crete, and it is something which I want us to invest in very systematically,” he emphasised.

Finally, speaking of the government’s budget for 2025, he said that the country’s progress could be summed up in a single figure: the Public Expenditure Programme for 2019 was €5.5. billion, now it is €14.2 billion. “This change essentially signals a transformation in the development model of the country, towards productive investments and towards investments of high added value. In conjunction with the reduction in unemployment, with stable public finances, these create the foundations on which we can build a Greece which will prosper, with fewer social inequalities and which will take care of our fellow citizens living in even the most remote corners of our country. That is the vision which we have. That is the policy which we are implementing.”
(Haniotika Nea, 13/12/24)