Deputy Foreign Minister Miltiadis Varvitsiotis, speaking on Friday in Parliament during the debate on the adoption of the 2022 State Budget, lambasted SYRIZA and highlighted foreign policy achievements under the New Democracy government.
"Greece can succeed if it utilizes three basic things: its human resources, its geographical position and its participation in the EU," Varvitsiotis said.
"This cannot be done with the logic that we will go to Europe and teach our partners what is the truth, which we hear monotonously from SYRIZA.
"It is done by Greece utilising the different strategies of member states, to take advantage of correlations and to always be in the frame of the winners in any negotiation.
"That is what he did and this is what the government of Kyriakos Mitsotakis will continue to do."
Speaking about the goals of the government in relation to Turkey and the EU, Varvitsiotis pointed out that "for the first time in our history we have turned the issue of Greek-Turkish relations into a Euro-Turkish issue and we have managed through constant interventions to have a very tough framework today, in which Turkey is described in clear and harsh words.
"This leads our neighbour to an extremely strained relationship with the EU, which has not only political but also economic consequences.
"We cannot leave Turkey out of control, and beyond the European context, without a reminder from the EU that the common values of democracy, the rule of law, respect for human rights and respect for international treaties and international law are a necessary condition for any expansion of its participation in it, and of course the enjoyment of any benefits from the financial relationship that it may have with it.
Moreover, Varvitsiotis stressed that the Greek government is shaping the European reality to a great extent and managed with this approach to secure the most money per capita from the Recovery and Resilience Fund.
He stressed that this resulted in Greece having development prospects ahead of it, which it had never had before.
Criticising the official opposition, Varvitsiotis stressed that the policy of the previous SYRIZA government resulted in the largest tax raid since the founding of the Greek state, as well as the complete isolation of Greece from everything happening in Europe.
"What we have found, he noted, is that SYRIZA is returning to an extreme leftist logic, which has nothing to do with the path taken by the EU, and as a result it asks our country to be isolated again, as it was in the previous five years," the deputy foreign minister said.
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