Greece’s New PM Sets Gov’t Priorities at 1st Cabinet Meeting

Greek government family photo. Photo source: Prime Minister’s press office

Greece’s prime minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis said on Wednesday that ministers and members of the new government must have a “strong stomach” during the first cabinet meeting held in Athens after Sunday’s polls.

Among others, Mitsotakis, who was re-elected with an overwhelming majority last Sunday, laid out the priorities and time schedules and called for “hard work” and “efficiency”.

Key government priorities include making state services more efficient, improving Greece’s financial standing, ensuring the country’s water utilities in Athens and Thessaloniki remain in state hands, creating jobs, raising wages, and creating the conditions for a “better life in a stronger Greece”.

Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis. Photo source: Prime Minister’s press office

He went on to add that the time calls for “fewer words” and more actions. “We have no right to disappoint the citizens who placed their trust in us…Our adversaries are only problems and potential mistakes,” he said.

Mitsotakis and his new cabinet were sworn in on Monday after his conservative party New Democracy garnered 40.55 percent of the national vote winning 158 seats in the 300-member Greek parliament.

The Greek prime minister said that over the next four years, his government will move ahead with a total of 120 reforms, 79 recovery fund milestones of 959 operational actions with the aim of ensuring “stability” and “growth”.

The first post-election Greek cabinet meeting. Photo source: Prime Minister’s press office

Mitsotakis is scheduled to begin visits to ministries with the first today at the new super-ministry of national economy and finances. According to local media reports, Mitsotakis is expected to extend a series of support measures, including the so-called “market pass” launched earlier this year to help ease the cost-of-living crisis.

The PM is expected to announce immediate actions in the coming days.

According to AP, Mitsotakis will be meeting with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on the sidelines of the NATO summit in Vilnius, Lithuania on July 11-12.