Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis presented the course of the economy, in the debate on the last budget before the parliamentary elections of 2023.

In his speech, the Prime Minister said:

“Each party has the need to present the data from the perspective that interests them. This is what you did too, Mr. Tsipras [SYRIZA leader]. If I did what you persistently ask me to do, Mr. Tsipras, to call elections now, this would be our last confrontation. If you want to convince the people that you deserve the chance, aren’t you tempted to talk to us about the future of the country? Speak for 65 minutes about what you would do if the Greek people trusted you, speak for 3 minutes. You are and will remain a party of protest and not of power, a party of whining and not of results.

Last year, in the same speech, I summarised the environment in which the economy had navigated for three difficult years. I presented the effectiveness of a comprehensive policy that evolves by design over time. 2021 was better than 2020, 2022 better than 2021, and 2023 will be better and more hopeful.

The principles that permeate the government’s fourth budget are growth in the economy and care in society. So 2023 will be dynamic and hopeful, completing the first positive cycle of a truly new Greece.

2022 closes with a GDP growth rate almost twice the European average. And the forecast for 2023 is that the growth rate will be three times the European rate. Thus, at the end of 2023, public wealth will have increased by 45 billion euros compared to 2018. In the international recession, we respond with growth.”

On his part, the major opposition leader of SYRIZA, Alexis Tsipras earlier called for immediate elections.

“Today’s debate has a hopeful message to give to the Greek people. This budget will be the last of the Mitsotakis government,” said the president of SYRIZA-PS, Alexis Tsipras.

“So, it will also be a budget that will not be implemented”, he said, as “very soon a new progressive parliamentary majority will be in these seats”, he estimated.

Referring to the situation the SYRIZA government had deposited to the current administration, “it was your faction and your failures that led to a terrifying fiscal adjustment”, as the President of SYRIZA-PS emphasised.

“You think that in this country history starts from 2015,” asked Mr. Tsipras, accusing ND of handing over to SYRIZA “a bankrupt country”. The SYRIZA government “faced the crisis you created for the Greek people, your own crisis,” he said, focusing on “honesty.”