For the introductory post to this speech, click here. The following is the text of the entire speech. The interpolations in square brackets are ours. A video and the full text of the original speech, in Greek, can be seen on the Prime Minister’s official website, here: https://www.primeminister.gr/2023/09/16/32545.

Dear Nikolai Denkov, I thank you for your kind words, it is an honour and a privilege to have Bulgaria as the honoured country at this year’s Thessaloniki International Fair.

Dear Colleagues in the government and in Parliament, Mr Regional Governor, Mr Mayor, ladies and gentlemen, dear invited guests, once again this year, Thessaloniki becomes the venue for an assessment of the nation’s progress and becomes simultaneously the starting point for a new direction.

Except that this year the International Fair, as you yourself said Mr President, is taking place at an especially difficult juncture for our homeland. I would honestly wish that this introduction could focus on the tremendous success of achieving investment grade after 14 years. I would prefer that it should refer rather to the second place in development in the whole of Europe which Greece has achieved in the last three months .

To the record exports, to the biggest reduction in public debt worldwide, but also to the lowest unemployment of the past 15 years. To the good news from tourism, with more income and more visitors even than since 2019. And indeed, to the successes of our international economic diplomacy, to the excellent economic relations which we have developed with Bulgaria.

The facts, however, call upon me to begin quite differently: with the unprecedented trial faced by our country, which in the space of two weeks faced the biggest forest fire and immediately afterwards the biggest flood in its history. These are events which cast a shadow over today, but which also lead us to a radical replanning for tomorrow.

I was in Evro and in Thessaly. I saw the disasters, I saw the residents’ despair in the face of the onslaught of nature and my commitments are two: first, what we have lost, the state and the citizens, we will rebuild together. But we will rebuild it better and without the errors of the past. With European and national funds, which will restore to the affected areas their rhythm of life, their community, their economy.

My second commitment: we will do everything to ensure that our unequal struggle with the climate crisis will not become a lost battle. For although the onslaught of the climate crisis – climate catastrophe I remember the UN General Secretary called it – may often exceed the capacities of state institutions, may sometimes exceed the capacities of human and scientific expectation, with the mobilisation of everyone our country has the strength to stay upright and, chiefly, resilient in the face of this new threat.

In Τhessaly and in Evros I heard the anger of the citizens who, rightly, want the state in all its manifestations to carry out its basic mission: that is, to protect lives and property. And I discovered how difficult it is to explain to someone who has lost their house in the flooded villages of Palamas that 8 billion tons of water fell on Thessaly. Eight billion tons of water, an amount which a river such as the Danube would need 15 days of constant flow to deliver.

And I also saw once again the two faces of our state. On the one hand the confusion of jurisdictions and the frequent shifting of responsibilities. But I also saw coordination, organisation and chiefly heroism. Heroism in the field, which saved thousands of people. To those people we provided medical care, looking after public health. We restored power very quickly, in record time. We restored access to the villages in the region of Mount Pelion and in the mountainous part of Trikala, where the road network was completely destroyed.

My heartfelt thanks go to all the personnel of the machinery of state, all those who struggled day and night in the mud. But I especially want to thank the volunteers, who showed how strong are the “antibodies” of solidarity carried by our people. Demonstrating that the mirror of today’s Greece is not the vile murder of Antonis at Piraeus. An act which, unfortunately, took place simultaneously with the trials of Magnisia and the whole of Thessaly.

Against that, I can bring to mind very many, dozens, hundreds of stories of human courage and solidarity which unfolded during this crisis. I retain one picture however: three young people on a tractor, two days after the flooding of Palamas with a metre of water, handing out water to the elderly. When a youth was asked “why are you doing that”, his reasoning was so simple and so powerful. He said: “We are in a better state than they are and we need to lend a hand. If we were in need, someone else would have to be found to help us.”

A big thank you once again, because that magnanimity, the magnanimity of the everyday citizen but also the self-sacrifice of all the officials of the machinery of state, not only of Civil Protection but also of the Regions, the Municipalities, of our Armed Forces who were there in the battle from the first moment, that is perhaps the most unanswerable response to the petty-minded who aimed to convert a disaster into a cry from the opposition. To the miserable souls who maliciously predicted hecatombs of dead and stabbed the Armed Forces in the back with misleading photographs. And of course to the unending, obscene poison of the internet. All of those, I have no doubt, will never be pulled out of their own mud.

Our own enemy was and is the mud from the flooding. For that reason the staff of government coordinators will remain for as long as is needed in Larissa, organising the effort at all levels: from household belongings and repairs, to dealing with the dead animals and the full operation of the water supply and irrigation networks.

To our friends [who are here] from Macedonia I would say that the cost of reconstruction will be considerable. Our economy however, is strong enough today to withstand it and our country has enough diplomatic clout to claim and to receive significant European help.

I conveyed this already on Tuesday during the visit we made with the responsible ministers to the European Commission and I maintain it constantly to all my counterparts. It is not enough, therefore, that as a Union we spend trillions of euros with the aim of reducing emissions in the future – we are doing it ourselves as Greece, I would say, we are doing more than that as leading players in the green transition. At the same time we need to stand by the citizens of the member states when climate change wrecks their lives now and in the future. And I aim to repeat that in every international forum.

Our first priority is to help citizens in the flooded areas, beginning with rebuilding their houses. To support businesses. To give farmers and stock breeders the supplies they need to stand on their feet again, so they don’t abandon their land. The first payments from the state relief system began yesterday. In record time €25 million were paid out to almost 5,000 farmers, €6,600 each so that those people can return to their homes, buy a new household appliance, start to take control of their lives again.

Equally urgent however – as we well know, having discussed it extensively with the responsible ministries – is the reconstruction of heavy infrastructure, chiefly transport. Roads, bridges, trains, lines, railway lines which were given over to the mercy of the water, need to be rebuilt, and will be rebuilt, with very fast procedures. But also with new, more robust specifications. An ordinance giving the Infrastructure Ministry powers to do this was already approved by Parliament last week.

But that is not enough. It has now become clear that Thessaly is carrying the weight of many decades of mismanagement of its water resources. Now is not the time to talk of the choices of previous generations, they were made in different circumstances and with other national priorities then prevailing. From the drainage of Lake Karla to the establishment of settlements on the lowest part of the plain, i.e. at the point where the region’s six rivers come together.

In recent years the Region of Thessaly has undoubtedly carried out significant anti-flooding measures. Whether everything was done right will appear in the report and from the investigation by the Courts. But one thing is clear – there is a lack of overall planning, of serious scientific documentation. And what is chiefly missing is the rapid maturation and construction of the works which will be proposed.

For this reason and by my decision, the Organisation for Managing the Water Resources of Thessaly is being formed immediately, under the Ministries of Infrastructure and the Environment.

We are all putting our effort into this, because the aim of the organisation will be central planning, now, but also the implementation of important anti-flood measures. Today these responsibilities are – as you well know – fragmented amongst different authorities, while at the same time we need to introduce and implement permanent solutions in the irrigation sector.

This is not a new subject. We have been discussing issues of the water resources of Thessaly for at least 40 years. But it won’t do for us to have a problem of drought one month and to be flooded the next. Something needs to change, and will change in the management of Thessaly’s water resources. And I have already discussed getting technical help from abroad which can support us in this effort.

But I will say again: the volume of water which besieged Thessaly, the volume of water in Storm Daniel, was outside the specifications of any anti-flood planning. It constitutes, however, a warning. It’s not an alibi, it is a warning that we must be ready for other flooding phenomena of lesser intensity, also catastrophic, which will undoubtedly strike with greater frequency. For this reason, and beyond the initiatives of the State, the community as a whole needs to take medium term measures for its defence.

The climate crisis is here and it obliges us to see everything differently, including the issue of compensation payments for natural disasters. We have already announced that all those who insure their property against natural disasters will in the first phase have a reduction of the order of 10 per cent, in the framework of a system of incentives and disincentives which will encourage taking out insurance.

However, we must not just stop there. Insurance against natural disasters for medium and large enterprises must become obligatory, while the restructuring of insurance in agricultural production will quickly go ahead.

And yes, it’s time for a public discussion to start in Greece about obligatory insurance of all property, all houses, all productive units, against natural disasters. In an area which is faced with fires, floods and also earthquakes, this objective becomes a matter of course. It is simultaneously a form of collective protection in which we all have a duty to participate.

The state will once more – I want to emphasise this – stand at the side of those afflicted. As some of you already know, we have already created a special fund for natural disasters, with a ceiling of €300 million, which from 2024 will be increased to €600 million. This difference, this additional €300 million, will come from an increase in the daily accommodation tax from one to six euros, especially in luxury hotels.

And of course the State will also require the private sector to take its own place in this restructuring effort. Not only with expertise but also with capital. Major construction companies will become contractors for infrastructure works, for important reforestation works, for the road network. Household equipment companies will help with discounts which some have already announced for our afflicted citizens, so that they can restore their households.

And of course, prosperous organisations such as the Hellenic Bank Association, which has already contributed €50 million to the communal reconstruction fund, but also the Union of Greek Shipowners, the Hellenic Federation of Enterprises, our expats, should voluntarily fund this new great national effort.

And since I have been talking a lot about Thessaly, I want our fellow citizens in the similarly afflicted Evros to know that exactly the same mobilisation will apply for them. I will not repeat the plan I have already announced there. I will only add that it will be framed by the restructuring of our defences against immigrant flows. In short, the extension of the fence is continuing and will be completed, together with a series of other measures for the better protection of our borders on dry land and at sea.

A few words, finally, about Civil Protection – I will have the opportunity to speak in more detail on those issues tomorrow. There is a very important programme, the AEGIS programme, which I expect to be executed very quickly. When it is complete – it needed time and a lot of work to bring it to fruition – we will be talking about a completely different infrastructure for Civil Protection matters.

But I would like to say something else: our cooperation, the systematic cooperation of Civil Protection with the Armed Forces, is an established fact, with specific protocols which will need to be activated on a precautionary basis and, I would say, in meticulous detail.

Let’s make no mistake, we are in an unofficial war, which is being conducted in peacetime conditions. And a country which spends 3 percent of its GDP on the Armed Forces must obviously have the capacity to use the Armed Forces when it is faced with significant natural disasters, and that is what will happen from now on.

I will end this introduction with a slightly more personal observation. This is the fifth time that I have come to the Thessaloniki International Fair as Prime Minister and in the 50 months that I have had the honour to be the Prime Minister of our country many crises have had to be faced. Many more than I imagined when I set out on this alluring path. I never hid anything, I never claimed to be infallible, but I never gave way to obstacles, however insuperable they seemed. I will do the same now.

Even in the face of nature, which reminds is that it often surpasses human capacities, my position is the same. We are not, Mr President, “the cowardly, fated and weak-willed” of the lines of Kostas Varnalis. Certainly, we are not “hoping for some miracle”. On the contrary, all together we must build the miracle of our country and every time we fall, we must get up even stronger than before. We have shown it. We will show it again.

Ladies and gentlemen, I will say again that I feel the weight of obligation, standing once more before you as Prime Minister for a second term. Thank you for your trust. A trust which becomes a responsibility, since that 41 per cent of the elections – I will say again – is not a passport to complacency nor an excuse for arrogance. For me personally it is a mandate for work and for results. It is, in other words, a call for humility and consistency.

So to those who are waiting impatiently for all those things, I assure them that I am the first to want to run faster to put them into practice. And to those who say in good faith “we haven’t got off to a good start” I always reply “I hear you”. I promise, however, that even though we lose some battles, in the end we will win the war. Just as we won in the previous four years. Please remember that.

For after years of misadventures, our country is closing its accounts with the past. And yes, I know that the cloud of grief is today casting a shadow over our thoughts, but our compass will be not only the adversities of this year’s summer but the hopes which are born from a Greece which is stronger economically, socially and geopolitically. A Greece which is ready to confront the ills of yesterday but also the challenges of tomorrow. A country which is better armed, now, with a deep national self-knowledge. The one which emerged in 2019 to be justified and confirmed in 2023, when the citizens demanded a country which will generate success instead of problems, supporting the most vulnerable and chiefly creating new wealth to be shared by all.

For that very reason, my speech today will not include grandiloquent promises of new benefits. It will focus rather on major political changes. That is to say, it will be an unusual International Fair speech with quite a few “nots”, first and most important that I will never put at risk the fiscal stability which is the foundation of our progress. I will never permit us again to live through the trauma of national bankruptcy, just as I will not again let Greeks be divided over a lie.

I will also describe today the multifaceted modernisation which I already spoke about in the Programme Statements in Parliament, focusing however on three sectors, especially on three sectors: the economy, law and justice, and on a state which will serve a better daily life for all. That, in any case, is how I interpret the strong popular mandate of June for us to make our plan a reality.

I know that everyday life is flooded with disagreeable news, but we must remind you that we set to work immediately. We abolished the obstacles to voting for expats, as we had committed to doing. We increased public sector salaries after so many years. And now it is the turn of medium-term planning.

“Big changes” are the theme of this year’s Thessaloniki International Fair. Big changes now, I would say. And we will transform into action the momentum we now have, the positive experience of four years of prudent financial policy, the Reconstruction Fund and the other European resources which we, this government secured for the country. And the investment grade which this government has achieved, as it had undertaken to do. A key to more favourable borrowing for the state, businesses and households, a seal of confidence in the prospects for the economy, but also a source of development, with new capital for jobs, which the country has been deprived of for years.

This dynamic triangle signals our new start. I will accompany it, however, with several clarifications: the next four years will be a period of investment in this country’s future. A time devoted to the creation of wealth. But for wealth to be distributed it must first be created.

A second observation: political relationships and party geography now make our own party the exclusive opponent of all the accumulated problems. So we should know that for some time to come the government will be targeted for every mishap which occurs in the country. That is a matter of course. Either it’s responsible or it is not. For me, criticism is always welcome. So long as it is well intended, is based on fact.

And those who offer criticism should devote a little thought to “the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood” as President Theodore Roosevelt said. Those words, which he wrote 100 years ago, are of exceptional interest to us politicians who are in the arena and know what it means to be in the front line of action. Let them always have that in mind – the various self-appointed couch firefighters, keyboard patriots and blowhard reformers.

I now arrive at my last comment: our targets for this year will not come out of some “basket” of announcements. They will be based on bold cuts in the structure of the economy and the state.

It was from here, from this platform at Thessaloniki, that I first spoke of the “Truth Agreement” with the citizens. I want once more to make it clear that I am not concerned with the famous political cost. Whatever I have to say will shortly represent the truth. Our capacities and our successes, as well as our delays. But chiefly, the great changes which Greece requires.

They are changes which will “inconvenience” some but will favour the many. I am not up against the citizens’ expectations, but against my own conscience. I have a mandate for major reforms, and those I will carry out.

Ladies and gentlemen, the shadows of the present day do not hide the truth of the times. Society will see in 2024 with the implementation of around 50 per cent of our pre-electoral financial commitments, to the tune of €4.4 billion. The core of these will be the 10.5 per cent increase in public salaries after more than 10 years. Almost 660,000 employees will see their net earnings increased by €1,500. In short, they are getting one additional monthly salary per year. On 1,340,000 tax returns, the tax-free band is to be increased by €1,000 for every child, because this government’s policy is to support the family.

For 200,000 people who formerly qualified for EKAS [a benefit for pensioners on low incomes], participation in the cost of their drugs has now been permanently abolished, while in the coming days, the responsible Minister for Development will announce a series of new measures aimed at stabilising the prices of basic products, and reducing them where possible. It is an additional bulwark against international increases. Especially for food, we know that the war against inflation, especially in the next few months, will be continual and intense.

As regards the Market Pass, it will continue until the end of the year, but only in Thessaly and Evros. It is an adjustment which is imposed by conditions and the solidarity which we need to show in those two areas. But it is also something which is imposed by our national target: for our economy to show a primary surplus of 0.7 per cent by the end of the year. This target will be achieved, it is non-negotiable for the government and for the economic team.

Nevertheless, within those targets, we have the possibility of implementing a series of important moves which we have already announced: a €150 Youth Pass for 200,000 18- and 19-year-olds. We are doubling the budget for the “My Home” programme for our young citizens from 25 to 39 years old, almost 5,000 low-interest loans have already been granted. Our aim is for a total of 10,000 young people to get a house. And with a series of parallel actions around 150,000 of our fellow citizens will benefit in one way or another so as to get more affordable accommodation.

Help to more vulnerable people remains non-negotiable. From December, the Minimum Wage will be increased by 8 per cent. Before the end of the year emergency aid will again be paid to those disadvantaged by the personal difference under the Katrougalos Law, with the emphasis on those with low pensions. While in January there will follow a new annual increase for all pensioners.

In the near future there will be a reimbursement of the Special Tax on agricultural diesel, and we will continue to pay out the heating fuel subsidy to more beneficiaries, with special emphasis on families with children. There will also be additional benefits for electricity for the more vulnerable consumers, while in April there will be a further increase in the Minimum Wage.

I would remind you, finally, that one more of our pre-election commitments is already being implemented: pensioners who work will not be burdened with a 30 per cent reduction in their monthly income. Instead they will only pay a contribution of 10 per cent on their additional earnings, and that with a ceiling to be determined by the Ministries of Finance and Labour. It is an important opportunity not only for increasing their income, but also to legalise – don’t let us deceive ourselves – an employment which often remains undeclared.

Please note that all these measures do not relate to benefit policies, as many people may be inclined to say. They are specific responses to the current onslaught of inflation, but the main body of them consists of measures which will remain place after today’s inflationary wave has passed.

The annual increases to public sector pay, to pensions and to the minimum wage are permanent. They have come to stay. Sooner or later prices will retreat. To put it differently, our policy is always motivated by the structural principle that price increases must be countered permanently.

Subsidies were and are useful, but they are only auxiliary. Inflation is combated with stricter control of the market, but chiefly through the strengthening of disposable incomes, as we have done systematically all these years.

Exactly this policy is served by another of my decisions which I am announcing today: from 1st January 2024 the three-yearly increments will be unfrozen, as well as every length-of-service increment which had been in abeyance since 2012. In practice, what we are doing, since we have confidence in the strength of the Greek economy, is to bring forward by one or two years something which under the law of 2012 would only come into force when unemployment falls below 10 per cent.

Now, however, all young earners will have higher incomes, which will increase with time. From tomorrow, the Labour Ministry will publish specific examples of what the unfreezing of the three-yearly increments will mean for the income of workers in the private sector.

A second important structural measure is the revitalisation and strengthening of competition among credit institutions. We want to support banking’s fifth column. We want to give the possibility of providing loans to non-bank institutions – it’s important for us to have more competition in the funding of households and businesses, always under the supervision of the Bank of Greece. We will continue the “Herakles” plan [which provides government guarantees for certain kinds of loans], but with much more specific and exact terms of protection for the borrowers and accurate information from the servicers, with clear ethical rules which everyone has to obey.

We will also be abolishing standalone taxation of government bonds – we want to encourage bonds as an alternative choice for saving – reducing the tax on financial transactions by half, but also much more important, which I am sure many of you didn’t even know about: promoting and supporting the IRIS service. The IRIS service is a service which is already in operation today. It gives you the possibility of moving amounts of up to €500 per day without any banking charges.

And the third, structural measure deals with an issue that we have discussed many times and that is none other than uncontrolled short-term rentals. Yes, we want short-term rentals, they are a competitive product which supports the Greek economy and the income of property owners, but it is an activity which in different parts of the country has caused rents to skyrocket and has distorted competition, particularly in tourism.

From January, therefore, the income from such rentals, from three or more properties, will be subject to VAT and to the taxes in force for hotels and rented rooms.

I believe that these are important inflection points in economic life which rationalise it and make it fairer. For if up to now the state aimed to relieve the citizens of taxes – remember that it was our central commitment in the first four years, “less taxes”, and we put it into practice – now the second four-year period needs to turn to their fairer distribution, and finally to the need to win the war against tax evasion.

You may remember that in Parliament, in the Programme Statements, I had said that this government has both the legal capacity and the will and the technical know-how to do it.

Today I will repeat the obvious: tax evaders will be forced to do the obvious. To do what? To finally pay the taxes which correspond to their actual income.

Ten specific measures which are moving in this direction will be unfolded in the coming months. They are measures which serve the regularisation of the market, but chiefly justice in the community.

By the spring of 2024, then, we will have finally connected 450,000 cash machines with POS terminals. Electronic payments will be extended throughout the retail market, but obligatorily – note – to buying and selling property, where cash is definitively abolished.

At the same time, digital invoicing and electronic account books are on the way. Income declared by the taxpayer will no longer be able to fall short of that which is derived from electronic information. While, most importantly, expenses, especially for the self-employed, will only be counted if they have been declared through the myDATA platform.

From January also, the digital dispatch note is being implemented and all the details of e-commerce will have to be passed on to the AADE. Most welfare benefits will be paid only through credit cards and transactions in cash over €500, which are prohibited, will henceforth be subject to a fine of double their value.

It is a coordinated attempt to ensure that this “candy” – we have heard about it for many decades – of the war against tax evasion will someday melt in the mouths of those smart people who laugh at the expense of others.

It won’t do today for seven out of ten self-employed people to declare annual incomes even lower than the minimum wage. Nor indeed for there to be business people with increased profits but without increased liabilities. On that score, apart from what I have announced, very shortly the Finance Ministry will be introducing a set of fair institutional reforms aimed at fighting tax evasion.

Taxes support the national budget and are returned through works to society. It is the reason why the tax system constitutes the central pacemaker of every open society. Tax evasion is a double curse: it is antisocial, and it is anti-business. The terms “liberalism” and “tax evasion” are always antithetical.

Apart from that legality, in all its manifestations, is becoming a watchword of the era. And it is becoming the battlefield on which special interests impede progress. Not only with tax evaders. With every source of parasitism.

In other words, we are opening up a front with every state enclave which resists. We are also opening a front, however, with the citizen who irresponsibly lights a fire on their uncleared land. With the gangs trafficking immigrants from abroad, but also with the hooligans. The trespassers on public space at home, whether this is called a university, or it’s called a beach or a street. And we are opening a front, yes, with the few lawyers and judges who are delaying the administration of justice. Because this also is a brake which is slowing down modernisation.

As you can see, we want a different political model, not only to establish it as a central political choice, but chiefly as the catalyst for an everyday attitude.

It’s not the function of the state to be agreeable. It’s good if it is agreeable, but first of all it must be functional. And citizens, from private individuals, must become shareholders in public responsibility. Everywhere. Everywhere. From the income they declare to the rubbish they recycle. Because this mutual inertia and this passing on, finally, of complicity, are basic reasons for the malaise: if the government leaves holes in the control networks, it is usually the big fish who pass through these holes. The small fish feel they are being done an injustice, and sooner or later end up imitating the same behaviour.

What is the result? A feeling of arbitrariness spreads. A feeling of general lawlessness. It is a canker which eats away at the essence of social cohesion, which is trust. So I am not interested if some people defend it. Even if it is major shipping companies, giants of the food industry, powerful people in the field of energy or football, or friends in the party who ask for some favour. We are not governing jointly with them. We oppose injustice with equality before the law.

I am not talking to you about things that will happen. I am talking to you about things that are already happening. It’s not by chance that the state has begun the prosecution of illegality from Mykonos and not from some fishing island.

That the first fines were issued to large companies, who thought that because they are so big, and because they believed that they could make five phone calls to five acquaintances, they would escape from the application of the law. That’s where the first fines came down, not in small neighbourhood establishments.

This summer, 10,000 square metres of illegally occupied shore were released in prime destinations, not on family beaches. This is a new movement, the movement of everyday life with rules.

It will intensify and will have to spread, with the same conditions applying to the tax evasion of the “big sharks” as to the dishonesty of the trader who in the midst of the flooding was selling water, vegetables and meat at higher prices. The size may be different, but the moral burden is just as heavy.

We have already made our intentions clear. Millions of fines within three months, more than 35,000 tax violations [uncovered], almost 50 businesses closed, 2,500 sweeps which uncovered 400 encroachments. During the same period occupations were cleared from six public buildings, in universities, which were dens of lawlessness.

I know very well that as we approach such problems they will show us their teeth. We know that there are very difficult problems which we have to face up to.

This year’s fires hurt us badly – I will talk tomorrow of what we will be doing, the ways in which we will intervene more promptly to quickly locate fires, with drones, with heat sensors, how we will hire more firefighters and forestry personnel.

Let’s face it. This battle is an unequal and a difficult one. But there are easier battles which it is within our power to win. Easing the problems faced by drivers, for example, because there are no traffic police on the road. Not failing to check places of known lawlessness, such as streets where there are impromptu races. In other words, big problems cannot become an excuse for tolerating small ones.

And while we are talking of policing, on my orders to the Minister of Citizen Protection, over the next month 2,500 police personnel are to be released from guarding public figures. Firstly my own security is being reduced by 50 per cent. This will apply to ministers, MPs and officers. Those policemen should be on the streets, at the Police Stations. As for business people and other VIPs, I’m sorry but they are going to have to pay for their own protection from now on.

Here’s why the slogan “lawfulness everywhere” is to be the title of the next wave of reforms. With Justice in the spotlight, fighting above all against impunity.

Let me explain: today practically every prison sentence up to 5 years is suspended or commuted. In the end, lawbreakers don’t fear punishment, they become emboldened and commit the same crime again. With the Ministry of Justice we are launching a series of targeted amendments to the Penal Code. Those who commit offences which are considered minor but cost lives and property can be imprisoned already by the court of first instance. From the driver responsible for causing a death on the road to the gangs of burglars and from the arsonists by negligence to the hooligans in universities and on football fields.

The second is not so much the severity of penalties as their application. Someone is sentenced to 15 years and released after five.

And thirdly, quick decisions. With measures such as the establishment of only one deferment of trials, digitisation of processes, so that by 2027 we are approaching the timing of decisions which prevails in Europe.

Those of you who have been in the courts know all about it: delays, expense, hassle, general complaints, and behind all that the tricks of those who manage their case so it is forgotten, struck down or given a “soft landing”.

It is something which does an injustice to the vast majority of judges and lawyers. But it also chips away at the legal security of the whole country, because Themis ceases to be blind when she is so slow.

Ladies and gentlemen, if the economy and legality are two fronts in the new battle, the third relates to the performance of the state. Firstly in the heath sector, and primarily the new emergency service (EKAB). After 40 years it is now proceeding with a radical reorganisation. Eight hundred new hirings, new ambulances, a unified coordination centre in each Region of the country. A “Control Tower”, so that in super-urgent cases help can arrive within 10 minutes. We did all that during the pandemic. There is no reason why we cannot do it again now. And 6 helicopter bases which will take care of hospital transfers in remote parts of the nation. A programme which will be developed very quickly.

The upgrading of Emergency Departments is continuing in 96 hospitals, as are the upgrading of 156 health centres, 10,000 new hirings of healthcare staff, the digital patient file, the extension of free preventative screening.

Today Mr Mayor, Mr Regional Governor, I had the opportunity to visit the Papanikolaou hospital [the general hospital of Thessaloniki]. An emblematic hospital of Northern Greece which has been in operation since 1930. And to inspect the new floor of the Pulmonary Clinic – you may remember that it was destroyed by fire through negligence in 2022. Within a few months, managed by TAIPED [the government property development fund] in collaboration with the Regional Health Authority and the hospital management, we built an ultra-modern floor for this very important clinic. This is a vision from the future which we have seen today, but the future will become the present very quickly.

And that with funds from the [European] Reconstruction Fund. Because I am tired of hearing that “the money from the Reconstruction Fund will go to the select few”, when the impact of the resources from the Reconstruction Fund, which I recall we negotiated and brought into the country, is changing the everyday life of all citizens in all of Greece.

And especially here in Thessaloniki, after some difficulties, we can indeed announce that the relevant contracts have been signed. I hope and wish to to be present at the laying of the foundations for the new paediatric hospital at the end of this year, the beginning of next year at the latest. This important project is to become a reality through the gift of the Stavros Niarchos Foundation.

Of course the new cancer hospital will follow. They are works which are at the core of our social policy. I will not speak in detail of the important infrastructure works which are taking place in Thessaloniki, which in any case we will talk about regularly.

The Thessaloniki Metro, which is finally becoming a reality, we may imagine is a simple addition to the transport system, but I assure you that it will change the lives of Thessaloniki’s inhabitants and its visitors. And yes, everyone now knows that Thessaloniki will get a Metro and the antiquities on their original site, in a model action by the Ministry of Culture. [The reference is to fragments of the Roman boulevard of Decumanus Maximus which were found during excavations for the new Metro and will be restored to the place where they were discovered 10 years ago at the new Venizelos station.] Only when the Metro is in operation will we appreciate the major work of development which has taken place in Thessaloniki.

And indeed we are now ready to make public and to present the first studies for the extension of the Metro to the north-western quarters, to Metropolis, which have every reason to feel neglected.

Everyday life is of great importance and we attach great importance to the public transit system. The first 250 buses are finally arriving in the spring. [This month the government signed a contract for 250 electric buses for urban use in Athens and Thessaloniki.] Moreover, in November construction will start on the the biggest toll-free motorway in Greece, the “Flyover”. Yes, it will cause some disturbance, however we have discussed with the city authorities how, with the help of the Traffic Police, Thessaloniki will acquire something which it was in need of, in which a leading role will be played by the Infrastructure Ministry: a central coordinating authority for all the issues to do with traffic in Thessaloniki. I will ask for understanding and patience from the citizens, but this measure is necessary, otherwise nothing will change in the city.

Reform in daily life, however also means reform in work. The new framework now allows a worker to supplement his income legally with a second part-time job. But it also allows the employer to conclude contracts which correspond to the workload. All this without putting into doubt either the 8-hour working day or the 11-hour rest period, as some people are consistently maintaining, thus misinforming the Greek public.

And from the changes in labour, a couple of words about energy. The changes can be summed up in the target for 80 per cent of electricity consumption to come from sun and wind within the next four years. For us to finish, finally, with all the waste management units two years earlier than planned. For us to install more than 10,000 EV chargers in all the cities. It is an ecological challenge, it ensures a clean environment, but it is also an enormous financial opportunity for the country: cheap energy for households, investments in the locality.

But it is also a geostrategic choice. Earlier we heard the Prime Minister of Bulgaria talking about the close economic and energy ties between the two states and of the development of Greece, especially Thrace and Alexandroupoli, as a crucial player in the new energy map between Asia, Africa and Europe.

At the G20 in India, a new transport route for products was announced, from India, across the Middle East and Saudi Arabia, ending up in Israel with Europe as its destination. Greece and its interconnected transport infrastructure will have a leading role to play in all these epoch-making developments which are taking place on the global geopolitical map.

Finally, for the state itself, which needs to change – assessing its potential, simplifying thousands of administrative procedures, deploying technology, using artificial intelligence – it’s a tremendous opportunity. Also a challenge, danger, threat under some conditions, but we need to see its positive side, as to how it can improve daily life.

But I want to dwell in particular on a bill of the Ministry of the Interior which is already being prepared for debate, which establishes performance indicators for Local Authority Organisations. I want every resident to know what its Municipality is doing. The amount of rubbish it is recycling, how many staff are employed in cleaning services, what are the arrangements for childcare, for people with special needs, for the disabled, in the area. How we will rationalise its operation, incorporating 1,200 organisations into the Municipalities. That means economy of resources, greater efficiency.

Chiefly however, what we are asking for is more accountability to the citizen and to central management, and better monitoring by the state. These are issues which have – rightly – been discussed a great deal over the past year. And if you ask whether all that can come about in Greece, I will answer with one word: yes. Not just can but must come about. They are a one-way street for the nation. Only a healthy market brings investment, income and finally jobs and revenue.

And all the economic indicators point towards a Greece which is one of the leaders, and no longer the laggard in development, in the decline of unemployment, in the increase – I want to emphasise this – in disposable income and salaries. But only legality removes injustices, uniting the community, and only a meritocratic and functional public administration carries out its role in the name of the citizens.

I will end, ladies and gentlemen, by saying that two months ago the government’s Programme Statements were presented, and for that reason I have not referred extensively to our planning by each Ministry. I imagine that tomorrow I will have the opportunity to be more specific at the Press Conference.

And as I said at the beginning, I have had a different priority today. Not to insist so much on the measures which we are imposing, as on the catalyst which will convert them from announcements to concrete works. And that catalyst is none other than the reform of every branch which is holding us back, thus establishing communal trust around which all the energies of society are united.

Workers, realising that all this development finally concerns them, concerns them with better working conditions, concerns them with better salaries, concerns them with a better balance between work and free time.

Businesses, seeing a state which is more friendly, which encourages investment, but which demands that they participate in this social contract, in which we are all participants.

And the citizens who I know today feel insecurity – let’s not deceive ourselves – and this feeling we need to break down. So that they feel safe and chiefly, they feel that at every moment, if something difficult happens to them, the state will be there to help them. These things are all the more important when our times have become times of multiple crises, something which transforms social trust into a circle of cohesion, resilience and a springboard to collective creativity. This is the basis of the multi-faceted modernisation which we have promised.

Consequently, reform everywhere and legality everywhere become the terms of our new contract, this new “Truth Agreement” which we need to sign. Because it is in the everyday life of the citizen that all the needs of a community are crystallised. As we change that, we will change with it. And we will change Greece itself

And that conclusion may also be our guide at the symbolic crossroads we have reached, 100 years after the signing of the Treaty of Lausanne. Next year we will be celebrating 50 years since the fall of the Junta. It is a juncture which serves to highlight the heritage of disasters and triumphs in our national progress. It calls on us to convert the errors of the past into a “fertiliser” of victory in the present and hope for the future. After the national drama [of the exit from Asia Minor], Lausanne marked the recovery of the Greek state. After the Junta we built a more long-lasting modern democracy.

And I would like to end with some words from our Nobel prize-winning poet Giorgos Seferis: “I am not blind to our imperfections,” he wrote of our people. “But I have the idiosyncrasy of believing in ourselves.”

Those words by the Nobel laureate are the best epilogue for today. That with belief in ourselves, we Greek men and women may stride towards the future, and win it. And be sure of this: united we will win it.

Thank you.