“I know that in your country you have a culture of asking direct questions to politicians which I very much respect. What I will not accept is that in this office you will insult me or the Greek people with accusations and expressions that are not supported by material facts”.

This is how Kyriakos Mitsotakis responded to a Dutch journalist, when during the press conference he gave together with his Dutch counterpart, Mark Rutte, accused him of lying about the pushbacks.

And he continued: “This country has been dealing with a migration crisis of unprecedented intensity, has been saving hundreds if not thousands of people at sea, we just saved 250 people in danger of drowning south of Crete, we are doing this every day, rescuing people at sea, while at the same time, yes, we are intercepting boats that come from Turkey, as we have the right to do in accordance with the European regulation, and waiting for the TurkishCoast Guard to come and pick them up to return them to Turkey. So, rather than putting the blame on Greece you should put the blame on those who have been instrumentalizing immigration systematically, pushing people in desperate situation from a safe country, because I need to remind you that the who are in Turkey are not in danger”.

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“We have a very tough, but fair policy on migration. We have processed and given the right to protection to 50,000 people in Greece, including tens of thousands of Afghans. Have you ever been to Samos? You have not gone. You will not come to this building and insult me. If you go to Samos you will find an impeccable camp, with impeccable conditions,  funded with EU money, with clean facilities, playgrounds for the children to play, not comparison to what we had in the past. This is our policy, we will stand by it and I will not accept anyone pointing the finger to this government and accuse it of inhumane behaviour”, the Prime Minister concluded.