ND president Kyriakos Mitsotakis is touring the Dodecanese Islands ahead of the June 25 elections. From Leros, he sent a message of friendship to Turkey stressing that “we are not doomed to be enemies”.

“Here, from the Dodecanese, from the island of Leros, I want to once again send a message of friendship to Turkey. We are not condemned, friends, to live in constant tension with Turkey. But in order to be able to resolve the one basic issue which constitutes our main difference with Turkey, which is none other than the delimitation of the EEZ and the continental shelf in the Aegean and the Eastern Mediterranean, we must agree that this issue can only be resolved by good neighbourly relations and based on International Law.”

“We extend a hand of friendship but at the same time, we continue to strengthen our Armed Forces. We continue to protect our borders and continue to build powerful alliances that strengthen our homeland’s geopolitical footprint.”

No Greek Prime Minister and in no case am I personally willing to put on the table issues that are outside the agenda of Greek-Turkish relations. Issues of demilitarisation of the islands, issues of sovereignty, and sovereign rights are outside the context of the discussion with Turkey.”

Kyriakos Mitsotakis reiterated that the country needs a stable, independent government and expressed the belief that the ND will have a clear majority in Parliament.

Specifically, the ND president said: “The country needs a stable government. ND must have a clear majority in the Parliament and it will have it. He would already have it if the electoral system of simple proportionality did not apply in the May 21 ballots. We would already have a stable government today. It doesn’t matter, we’ll have it after the next election.”

Speaking at a gathering of citizens in Agia Marina Leros, he referred to the high percentage of the party on the island.

“The economy is doing better, you are the only Region of the country that has a significant increase in population, and this says something about your prospects and about the next day, which I think we all have the right to look forward to, now, with much greater optimism. You know that we have bent over these four years on the problems of our islands. We resolved many outstanding issues, always in excellent cooperation with the Region. I did not say that we have solved all the problems, but I believe that the situation as a whole in our islands is much better than it was in 2019. This was rewarded by the citizens at the ballot box on May 21.”

He then referred to the refugee issue saying, “…because I also remember well the situation that prevailed in the islands on the refugee front – not only in the Northern Aegean but also here in your islands – you remember that when I came to speak to you in 2019 in Rhodes, I told you ‘I promise that we will deal with the refugee problem at its root’ and we solved the problem.”

“We solved the refugee problem, reduced immigration flows to a minimum, and created modern structures on our islands. We managed and fought – and it was not at all easy – to keep the VAT low on the five islands where there were and are refugee reception structures”.