Among other things, the Prime Minister said:
- We need to secure this majority and ensure the Commission President gains a majority in the Parliament, so the Commission can start working on competitiveness.
- We also need to address issues like defense and migration, but first, we must resolve the matter of top EU positions.
- One conclusion is that New Democracy remains the dominant political force in Greece, the second or third largest party in the center-right percentage-wise in Europe. Clearly, we had set a goal that we did not achieve, but there are various reasons for this, which I take very seriously. It’s not just fatigue from continuous elections, we had very high abstention, but also citizens decided to use the European elections to send us a message of concern.
- In 2023, we achieved 41%, proving that we can have a center-right party with broad appeal, combining right-wing citizens and moderate centrists.
- The next years should aim for convergence with Europe, and we have three years in our term; there will be no early elections. The elections will take place in 2027. I was also clear in my first term, despite many questions that arose. They were proven wrong and will be proven wrong again. We will be judged on the entirety of what we achieve in our second term.
- I am a convinced reformist, and we received this mandate. We must focus on reforms with measurable results.
The message was to get to work and achieve the results we committed to.
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Discussion with Enrico Letta at the 28th annual Economist Government Roundtable conference