Fuel price relief agreed with refineries

Speaking during Prime Minister’s Question Time in response to a question from Androulakis on the cost of living, Mitsotakis said the price cut had been secured through direct coordination between the government and the country’s two largest refineries. He linked the move to the fallout from the recent Gulf crisis, which he said had damaged refineries in the wider region and pushed up fuel prices across Europe amid reduced production and seasonal demand.

The refineries have committed to contributing financially to support the economy through the reduction, which will run until the end of August; details of its implementation are expected to be announced in the coming week. Mitsotakis added that the government retains additional emergency measures in reserve and maintained that recent inflationary pressure stems primarily from the rise in crude oil prices.

Mitsotakis references Thessaloniki arson case

Before turning to the cost of living, the prime minister opened his remarks by referring to the recent arrests of three suspects over the arson attack in Thessaloniki that led to the death of Vagia Nestora. The Prime Minister said he was pleased to see a serious development in the case, noting that the arrests came just a day after the funeral of Vagia Nestora. “The state honours her memory by bringing the terrorists to justice,” he said, describing it as “the answer of democracy to violence.”

He added that it was significant the response was a shared one, welcoming Androulakis’s presence at Nestora’s funeral procession. Only if political forces united around the need to end the cycle of bloodshed, he said, would the oxygen that had sustained such violence finally be cut off, adding that the slogan “we are not afraid of you” needed to reflect the sentiment of the many, not the few.

Clash over cost of living measures

Responding to Androulakis’s criticism of the government’s handling of price rises, Mitsotakis argued that the political system had a duty not to burden future generations with debt, just as no parent wishes to leave debts to their children.

He said supporting society required both rising wages and higher disposable income through tax cuts, achievements he linked to Greece recording the fastest pace of public debt reduction among OECD (Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development) countries.

Public debt, he said, stood at 182% of GDP (gross domestic product) when his government took office and had since fallen to 146%, with a rapid decline below 130% expected, a shift he said would end Greece’s status as the most heavily indebted country in Europe.

On wages, Mitsotakis noted that the minimum wage had risen from €650 to €920, a cumulative increase of 40% for those earning at that level.

Citing Eurostat data for the 2019 to 2025 period, he said cumulative inflation across the eurozone had reached 26%, compared with 23% in Greece over the same period, adding this by mid-2026, arguing this showed Greece had experienced lower cumulative inflation than the wider eurozone.

Mitsotakis acknowledged there was no “magic solution” to the cost of living, but stressed that Greece in 2026 was a markedly different country from the Greece of 2019. He said he regularly discussed the issue with his European counterparts, describing the cost of living as a concern affecting governments across the continent and a top priority for his own administration.

He said he welcomes debate on the issue, provided it is grounded in real data and costed proposals, and challenged Androulakis to use his response to set out concrete alternative measures beyond pledges to reinstate a 13th and 14th month’s salary and pension, extra seasonal payments traditionally given to Greek employees and pensioners around Christmas and Easter. Mitsotakis said he hoped Androulakis would do so, so that he could respond substantively to the cost of any proposals put forward.