New PM Mitsotakis announces his top priorities for Greece

Greece’s new Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis announced on Saturday that cutting taxes, attracting jobs and tackling rising crime will be his top priorities.

Mitsotakis said he would immediately implement a reduction in property taxes while opening a three-day parliamentary debate on his new conservative government's policy statement.

He said he will stick to the fiscal targets demanded by Greece's creditors that the previous Syriza government agreed to meet, including an "excessive" primary budget surplus equivalent to 3.5% of gross domestic product, adding that he would try to negotiate different terms next year.

Mitsotakis also promised to abolish laws that made it easier for convicted felons and terrorists to be released from prison early and to re-establish maximum security prisons the previous government abolished.

As for the Prespes Agreement signed with Skopje, Mitsotakis said he would "alleviate (its) negative effects," notably by protecting the labeling as "Macedonian" of goods produced in the Greek province of Macedonia.

Referring to his predecessor Alexis Tsipras, he kept it very diplomatic saying, "We are not enemies, we do not seek each other's political demise. The era of rage, of recriminations, is over." He did rejoice at the absence from Parliament of "this repulsive Nazi entity," the extreme-right and anti-immigrant Golden Dawn party, which narrowly failed to reach the required 3% threshold to enter parliament.

A confidence motion will follow the debate late Monday.

*Source: Associated Press