Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis announced that elections will be held in the next nine months and made reference to Russia's alleged weaponisation of energy against the European Union.
As long as Moscow uses natural gas as a weapon, the crisis will deepen, the prime minister reportedly said during the cabinet meeting. He also warned that if something drastic is not done at the European level, then "major countries are at risk of collapse".
As is well known, Mitsotakis had submitted proposals several months ago to establish a ceiling on the wholesale price of natural gas and decoupling the price of electricity from the price of natural gas.
"What Europe is discussing today, Greece has implemented at the national level since July with the mechanism that recovers profits from companies at the source to return them as support to society," he emphasised during the ministerial meeting.
Meanwhile, the need to save energy and limit consumption was highlighted, firstly in the public sector - while the government spokesman ruled out planned electricity outages to curb demand.
Greece has done a lot in the field of supporting households and businesses, the prime minister also said.
"The government will continue to do everything it can", he added, to clarify afterwards that "we will not give in to pressure beyond the maximum limits given to us by the General Accounting Office of the State and the Ministry of Finance".
This crisis, the prime minister stressed, has common characteristics with the pandemic in terms of its potential consequences for the economy.
At the meeting there was an overview of the course of the Greek economy (exports, deposits, tourist receipts).
Mitsotakis also set the political framework for the election, saying that they will be held in the next nine months.
He also discussed laws concerning the implementation of government projects, saying that the cabinet should also operate more politically. In other words, to be political central with an exchange of views on current affairs and the coordination of government work with the electoral horizon of 2023.
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