Full interview, in the final straight for the European elections, was given by Prime Minister and President of the Southwestern Democratic Party, Kyriakos Mitsotakis, on the main newscast of ANT1 and journalist Nikos Hadjinikolaou.

The interview of Kyriakos Mitsotakis on the main newscast of ANT1:

As the Prime Minister said, the bet for ND in the June 9 polls is to come out stronger, to continue the reforms, as well as to repel the new manifestation of populism, “which seems to be gaining ground, that is, some people are giving money that does not exist, but also to bring back the toxicity that we left in the past.”

“The stronger the ND is on election night, the faster we will implement the reforms we have planned. I make it clear that we will implement our programme regardless of the election result,” he added.

“We are accused of arrogance of 41 per cent and on election night I said it is a great honour but not a blank cheque. The 41% was given to us by the people and when people talk down to us, they underestimate the people. Any messages of dissatisfaction I have already received,” the prime minister said, adding that he is not waiting for the European elections night in this regard.

Speaking about the first term of government of the New Democracy, he said it was a crisis management government, which it was called upon to deal with from the very first moment. He said that he would not set an entirely positive tone for the first year of the new government.

He again rejected the VAT reduction

Asked about inflation, Mitsotakis acknowledged that “obviously, wage increases are not enough.” He insisted that cutting VAT, even for a short period of time, would have a high fiscal cost and called on the opposition to say which taxes should be increased and which benefits should be cut. He also said it was not certain that such a temporary reduction would be passed on to product prices, referring to coffee, for example.

We cannot return to times of tax breaks and benefits, he also said, and underlined, after a question, that no country has programmed the banks – which he stressed have an obligation to feed more into the real economy.

Speaking about housing and mortgages, in response to a question, the Prime Minister stressed that the property market is doing well, which is positive for landlords and problematic for tenants. At this point he referred to the state intervention with the “My House” programme, speaking again about “My House 2”, which will be extended to couples aged 40-50 years old and for which discussions are underway with the European institutions in order to use Recovery Fund resources.

Mr Kasselakis chose to make an issue of his past affairs in the last week before the European elections, Mr Mitsotakis said, noting that his own past affairs have become “a matter of record”. “Mr Kasselakis is not doing us any favours, we are all obliged to testify,” he added.

Speaking about changes in his assets over the past two years, the prime minister said: “Indeed, there have been. We sold our family home in Glyfada, it is registered.”