Yesterday’s national success with the elevation of Finance Minister Kyriakos Pierrakakis to the post of Eurogroup chairman is expected to influence the mood at the meeting of the Parliamentary Group of the New Democracy that will meet at 12:00, chaired by Kyriakos Mitsotakis.

And Pierrakakis may not be able to catch the flight to Athens, as today he officially assumes his duties and participates in the ECOFIN, but the feeling that the country is “growing taller” and is no longer the “black sheep” of Europe is undoubtedly heavy for the MEPs of the Southwest, who yesterday “raised their voices” against the Minister of Rural Development Kostas Tsiaras, against the backdrop of the blockades around Greece.

Mitsotakis would have convened the party body anyway, with an eye on the debate on the budget that will culminate in its passage on Tuesday. But he is now expected to make references to the election of Pierrakakis, saying that this development is the most emphatic recognition of the positive course of our country and a moment of pride for the country, for the government, and for all citizens.

At the same time, he will also defend the government’s economic policy, which, spearheaded by the reduction of taxes from 1/1/2026, increases the disposable income of citizens. He will characterize the budget as realistic, social, and reformist, wanting to emphasize its developmental character but above all the provisions it contains, which primarily relieve the middle class, young people, families, and the region. Still, he will call on blue MEPs to take the budget’s message to their districts as a bridge to a six-year economic policy with a 2030 horizon.

The message for the blockades

Mitsotakis is also expected to make references to agriculture, given the ongoing blockades and the turmoil in the ranks of MPs. He will reportedly exhort his MPs to not only be conveyor belts for the climate of their regions to the centre but also to be rapporteurs of central government issues to the regions. In other words, they should not only voice complaints, but should also bear the burden of communicating the government positions they support through their votes.

But he will also address the farmers at the blockades and is expected to repeat the invitation to the representatives of the farming community, who are meeting at noon on Saturday, and are expected to subsequently communicate their demands to the government so that an appointment can be scheduled. As protothema.gr has been writing for days, anyway, there are ongoing behind-the-scenes paper exercises on rural electricity and oil.

The attitude of the MPs

After Mitsotakis has finished his statement, it is a given that the speech will be taken by ND MPs, who are registering several shocks from their constituencies.

The electorate will have several votes from their respective constituencies, which will be the most likely to be taken by the voters.

Yesterday, however, government spokesman Pavlos Marinakis sent a message, especially to the MPs who raised their voices particularly high in their meeting with Tsiaras at the ND offices. “We are not here to be only pleasant. Mostly, we are here to be useful,” he said from Thessaloniki.

It is taken for granted that MPs will expose problems to the prime minister, but competent sources believe that the tension will not resemble the briefing the day before yesterday. In fact, yesterday the secretary of the ND’s Central Committee Maximos Charakopoulos made contacts with blue MPs in an attempt to lower the tone and make the criticism that will be made fruitful and productive.

However, for their part, blue MPs counter that they cannot remain silent on the one hand when blatant mistakes are made, and on the other hand, when they themselves are the first to act as “punching bags”.

The first meeting with farmers

In this atmosphere, however, and in anticipation of an appointment between Mr Mitsotakis and farmers, yesterday afternoon for more than two hours, farmers and livestock farmers of Crete had a meeting with the vice-president of the government, Kostis Hatzidakis, and Mr Tsiaras.

The farmers presented their demands to the government, and there was a commitment from Mr. Hatzidakis and Mr. Tsiaras to examine and address several of them. In fact, there will be another meeting today at 11:30 am.

On the part of the government, it was stressed that, especially for livestock farming, a supplementary payment was adopted in specific regional units in order to remove injustices in the mathematical formula of distribution of the subsidy to real producers. It was also explained that there is a given understanding with the Commission on agricultural subsidies, otherwise there is an immediate risk that new fines will be imposed on the country, subsidies will be stopped and eventually the Greek farmer will be multiply damaged.

Also discussed were specific problems of Crete, but also the aspect of increased production costs on the islands due to distance. The government pledged to examine both these and the above problems and to take a definitive position in the context of the overall dialogue with farmers.