Mitsotakis on Star TV: More must be done to fight tax evasion, help low-income pensioners

Inflation in food is persistent but it is a European, not solely a Greek phenomenon, New Democracy leader Kyriakos Mitsotakis said in an interview to journalist Mara Zacharea on Star TV on Tuesday evening.

“We need permanent solutions to deescalate inflation, and the establishment of greater transparency and greater competition is in the right direction,” he added. The ND leader expressed the certainty he would win elections on June 25 and form a stand-along government, as “no other political power can formulate a realistic proposal for government rule.

Mitsotakis insisted that more must be done to fight tax evasion, announcing that a bill including proposals to reduce taxation in the next four years will be voted in Parliament before August. Speaking of wages in the private sector, he said they reflect the economy’s growth and “do not rise through government decisions, but through investments and empowering employees,” something he said happened during his first four-year term. In the public sector, wages will rise depending on position but also across the board in terms of family supplements. Mitsotakis said he was optimistic about the economy’s future, which would allow the government to provide more support to low-income pensioners at the end of 2023.

Speaking of Greek-Turkish relations, he said that he had issued a public invitation to Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan to meet, expressing the certainty it will happen “sooner or later.” Mitsotakis said “I welcome the scaling down of tension” between the two countries, reiterating that the only issue he will discuss with Turkiye is the delimitation of maritime zones, nothing else. “Even if we do not resolve our only difference, we are not doomed to live in a tense climate, as we experienced in the last three years,” Mitsotakis reiterated.

SOURCE; ANA-MPA