Mitsotakis to Sakellaropoulou: “We must admit failures, learn from our mistakes”

The President of the Republic, Katerina Sakellaropoulou, spoke about the need to consolidate an effective model for overcoming crises during today’s meeting with Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis at the Presidential Palace.

In particular, at the beginning of the conversation, Mr. Mitsotakis mentioned the problems that the cyclone brought Elpis (Hope)noting the following: “Madame President, I want to emphasize to you and especially to our fellow citizens in Attica, who have experienced this unprecedented snowfall brought by Cyclone Elpis, that efforts to build a resilient and effective state are an ongoing and indispensable priority for the government. There will be setbacks that we always have to courageously admit, mainly so that we can learn from our mistakes and become better and better.But I must tell you that in general, the work done in the field of civil protection over these 30 months, I think is very important. And we have laid the foundations for equipment acquisition procedures, training to be ready to face any surprise, no matter how intense, and along the way we will continue to work even harder to finally succeed in achieving our goals.”

PD: Crises Linked to Climate Change

For her part, Ms. Sakellaropoulou noted that the summer fires and recent snowfalls teach us that the country should acquire and consolidate a modern and effective model of anti-crisis management as soon as possible.”

She also noted that, as science now acknowledges, these crises are “linked to climate change and, unfortunately, they are expected to show an increasing trend in the future.”

In addition, the President emphasized that the country’s crisis response model “should be able, even in extreme conditions, with proper coordination and cooperation of all stakeholders and the right logistics infrastructure, to provide and offer citizens security and protection at the level of prevention and mitigation of adverse consequences that are expected. both naturally and in the context of resolving this situation.”

“I understand that there are many things that need to be done, but they are absolutely necessary. These days, our fellow citizens lived in very difficult conditions, as you said, especially in Attica. They went through hard times, I hope that these phenomena are slowly dealt with in their entirety. Of course, timely information and cooperation of citizens with state and local authorities to solve this difficult task is no less important, much remains to be done. I think that once again we should congratulate and thank the leaders of the Armed Forces, JCAB, GEDNO, local self-government and all branches of government, where they were able to respond to the extent that they responded and offered help to our fellow citizens who were in difficult conditions. I would like to emphasize the importance of volunteers and organizations providing assistance to vulnerable groups, such as the homeless, whom I have seen on numerous occasions in recent times. The work they offer is important, and indeed it is worth supporting these people and organizations from the side of the state, because in difficult times no one is left behind,” said Ms. Sakellaropoulou.

Mitsotakis: We learned lessons

The Prime Minister, again taking the floor, added: “Let me make an additional remark in connection with what you have said, and after thanking all the leaders of the state machinery, the armed forces and our volunteers who helped weather this snowfall last Monday. As I said before, it is important to learn from your mistakes. I want to emphasize that on the issue of restoring electricity, we moved much faster than after Cyclone “Medea” (February 2021. Editor’s note), because then we realized that there were flaws in our planning. And so we made sure to mobilize many more teams to deal with the problem that comes with every big snowstorm. I think the townspeople understand they have seen the amount of snow falling when a tree falls and cuts through a medium or low voltage pole. On Monday night, we had 200,000 households without electricity and power was restored much faster than during the previous snowstorm. Whenever we have extreme weather events, there will be difficulties, I think everyone understands this. The question is to be able to deal with them as effectively as possible, and, as you correctly noted, I pay great attention to coordination, standardization of procedures, timely decision-making and immediate mobilization of the entire state mechanism based on the planning that we have prepared. So I think we have also learned from this bad weather. I want to be honest with you, we focused on keeping the Athens-Lamia road open because we always had problems there and it stayed open. Unfortunately we had a problem on the main highway in Athens, Attiki Odos, for reasons I think we have explained. And I don’t think we need to analyze further.”

Investment JP MORGAN

Mr. Mitsotakis also addressed economics in connection with JP MORGAN’s investment in a Greek company:

“I also wanted to inform you that yesterday we had a very important event in the field of economy. We were visited by the CEO of Greek origin Jamie Damon of one of the largest banks in the world, JP MORGAN, who decided to make a very important and very large investment in our country, which , I believe, indicates a practical vote of confidence for the bank in the prospects for the Greek economy.Investing in a company made up of mostly self-made people proves the dynamism that exists today in this ecosystem of Greek startups.And of course, it is an investment that has benefited everyone to the employees of the company who have received significant financial benefits through this share process, the options that have been introduced by this government.And I hope that many other young Greek companies have a similar course.This does not mean that in the field of economics, despite the high growth rates , we do not ignore the existing difficulties.I know very well that the first What worries citizens today is the rise in price. Imported rise in price, the result of inflationary pressure associated with higher prices in the energy market. However, the government’s commitment is that the development that has begun concerns all Greek citizens, no one should be left behind. And so the government will remain fully consistent in supporting the disposable income of all citizens, more effectively. And this wave of appreciation will hopefully be temporary, but no one can predict with absolute certainty when it will end. And of course, the disposable income of citizens is supported in two ways: by lowering taxes, which is the indisputable policy of this government, we have proven it and will continue to go down this path, and also by increasing wages. So I want to reiterate your and the government’s commitment on May 1, earlier than we planned, to begin a significant, much larger increase in the minimum wage compared to what we have already implemented since January 1. I remain very optimistic about the medium-term prospects for the Greek economy, and I am always positive when this optimism is reflected in the choices made by large foreign investors regarding Greece. This means they also have confidence in the outlook for the Greek economy. Otherwise, they obviously would not have taken such steps.”

“On the issue of the economy, as we know, Greek society faced great difficulties in a ten-year crisis, and then a pandemic. In addition to significant losses in human lives, we have serious, very adverse consequences for the state of the economy. Therefore, any business steps that express confidence in the Greek economy are welcome and encouraging, and, as you said, I am thinking not only about the state of the economy, but also about society as a whole. I am aware that we have start-ups, we have young people with new skills, opportunities are given, that is, in addition to entrepreneurship and the influx of capital into the country, which I do not underestimate at all, to give people the opportunity to develop their skills. Especially the new generation, which has a lot to offer and, of course, suffers more from unemployment. Therefore, all this is going in a positive direction, I would say,” said Ms. Sakellaropoulou.

According to information from ΑΠΕ – ΜΠΕ

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