With recommendations and admonitions to members of the Cabinet regarding the tone and content of their public statements, Kyriakos Mitsotakis, in his remarks to the Cabinet, also gave a rather clear response to Dora Bakoyannis’s observation about ministers who had “become arrogant”, which fuelled the political debate throughout the previous week.

“Citizens will judge us all, but until then it is my responsibility to assess the behaviour of ministers and MPs,” Mr Mitsotakis said towards the end of his remarks, in an indirect but rather clear response to what Ms Bakoyannis had said. Mr Mitsotakis followed the same line as government spokesperson Pavlos Marinakis had the previous week, when he distanced himself from Ms Bakoyannis’s statement and stressed that responsibility for the assessment lies with the Prime Minister alone.

Of course, Mr Mitsotakis once again issued directives to ministers regarding their tone. “The only way to overcome instability is the path of internal stability,” Mr Mitsotakis said, stressing that “public dialogue must be serious”. “And political personnel must be mature enough to meet the demands of the times, with us, the members of the government, leading the way. In public confrontation, tone also creates impressions; our discourse must not only be persuasive, it must also be measured, unified and precise,” Mr Mitsotakis stressed.

After presenting the measures, the Prime Minister once again addressed the ministers and told them that they should not appear in the media only to discuss their own portfolios, but the government’s work as a whole.

“Everyone Knows It, But We Are Keeping It as Our Little Secret”

Former Athens mayor Kostas Bakoyannis also spoke about the issue this morning, after being asked on Action24 whether there are people who have “become arrogant”.

“Everyone knows it, but we are keeping it as our little secret. Arrogance is unfortunately often related to and identified with positions of power. All of us who exercise or have exercised power need to be two and three times more careful,” Mr Bakoyannis stressed.

New Democracy MP for the Western Sector of the B’ Athens constituency, Dimitris Kalogeropoulos, was also particularly critical, referring to some people who “became big shots out of nowhere”. “Ms Bakoyannis should not be the only one to denounce them; we all denounce them,” Mr Kalogeropoulos said, adding that they must “understand that we do not represent an elite”.

“Because New Democracy, as the largest party and a popular party from the process laid out by Konstantinos Karamanlis and in its statutes, is the largest. You cannot shrink it and tell me various stories about citizens and reprimand citizens when you come to serve them,” said Mr Kalogeropoulos, who also targeted the leadership of the Ministry of Energy, referring to Stavros Papastavrou, although he did not limit his criticism solely to the current minister.

In previous days, New Democracy parliamentary spokesperson Dimitris Kairidis had also commented on the specific issue that has emerged recently. Referring to the internal situation within the party, he acknowledged that there are instances of arrogance, both within the Parliamentary Group and the government. As he put it, “you can count on the fingers of two hands those who have become arrogant”, stressing that such behaviour is in the minority but nevertheless causes damage.

Mr Kairidis said that MPs’ complaints mainly focus on the lack of response from ministers, at a time when citizens are under pressure and problems remain at the forefront. He stressed that “nothing can be taken for granted” and that the government must remain close to society.