Greek Prime Minister Says in Speech He Will Keep Spending Secret

ATHENS, Greece — Greece’s prime minister said Saturday he would not allow excessive spending to derail the country’s recovery from a long financial crisis that required an unprecedented injection of cash from its creditors, in a keynote speech at the country’s most prestigious business event.

“I didn’t come with a bag full of gifts,” Kyriakos Mitsotakis told his audience at the Thessaloniki International Fair.

Government leaders traditionally outline the following year’s economic policies at the fair every September, while touting their achievements.

The European Union’s new post-pandemic budget rules aim to contain spending growth, with violators facing fines, and Mitsotakis has vowed to stick to those rules,

Mitsotakis announced increases in pensions and the minimum wage, as well as measures to boost exports, improve productivity, help address the housing shortage, encourage young people to stay in agriculture and address the country’s low birth rate.

Several of these measures, such as a second round of low-interest mortgages for young families worth 2 billion euros ($2.2 billion), will be partly financed by the European Union.

Addressing the issue of tourism growth, criticized by some as excessive, Mitsotakis said short-term rentals should not be “demonized” but vowed not to allow new rentals in central Athens for at least the next year.

He also announced an increase in disembarkation fees for cruise ship passengers, including, he said, on the tourist islands of Santorini and Mykonos. As for Santorini, government officials said the current fee of 35 cents ($0.38) per passenger could increase to 10 to 15 euros ($11 to $16.60).

Mitsotakis has denied that his government, in power since 2019, is suffering from reform fatigue and what he called the “second-term curse.”

And while his conservative party saw its share of the vote fall by around a third in last June’s European elections – a low-stakes election marked by record abstention – it almost doubled the score of its runner-up, the left-wing Syriza party, which also saw its share fall.

The Greek leader stressed that the government has more than a thousand days until the next national elections to implement its program and asserted that his party is the only stabilizing force in Greek politics.

The party is not facing much difficulty in opposition, where the two largest parties, Syriza and PASOK, are plagued by internal divisions. Syriza leader Stefanos Kasselakis faced a motion of no confidence at the party’s central committee meeting last Saturday. The Socialists will vie for their own leadership in early October with seven very different candidates.

As if to underscore the opposition’s weakness, the traditional, sometimes violent protest marches – including three by trade unionists, communists and far-left activists – were the least attended in years, perhaps ever, with barely 7,500 participants, according to local police. They ended without incident.

Thessaloniki, the country’s second city, and its surrounding regions are strongholds of the nationalist far right, the main beneficiaries of the European elections, with three parties winning more than 16% of the national vote and sending MEPs to the European Parliament.

Mitsotakis was keen to praise his government’s projects in the region and stressed that he had appointed the popular and populist regional governor of Central Macedonia as Greece’s next European Commissioner.

——————

Costas Kantouris contributed from Thessaloniki.