The Evros fence will be finished with or without EU funds, says Mitsotakis

Greek Prime Minister and leader of the ruling New Democracy Kyriakos Mitsotakis visited the Municipality of Pallini on Thursday, where he spoke with residents and shopkeepers in the central square of Gerakas, saying that the fence between Greece and Turkey will be completed.

"Tomorrow I will be in Evros and I will have the opportunity to sign the extension of the fence project that shielded Evros and our homeland from illegal migration invasions," he said on his tour on the lead up to elections on 21 May, adding that the project will be finished with or without EU funds.

"Despite the big crises we faced, we were consistent in all our pre-election commitments," the prime minister underlined.

He added that he pledged four years ago that the economy would return to a dynamic growth trajectory. "Today Greece is the champion of growth in Europe, we had 6% growth in 2022," he said.

He urged the citizens to take care when they vote on May 21, "if we do not want to relive the tax raid that crushed the middle class from 2015 until 2019."

At the same time, government spokesperson Yiannis Economou began his briefing to the press on Thursday by saying: "It is an unquestionable fact, which all honest citizens, admit that no government in the post-dictatorship period has faced more external crises than the Mitsotakis government."

"From the invasions of migrants in Evros and the constant threats of a provocative Turkey, to the pandemic, the Russian invasion of Ukraine and the energy and high prices crisis that emerged later.

"Nevertheless, the government met and in some cases exceeded the 'compact of truth' that Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis signed in 2019 with the Greek people.

"Obviously there were mistakes and problems, delays and faults. We are aware there were cases where we did not have time to do certain things that needed to be done and some were not done as well as we intended.

"But all of the above should not cancel out the work done as a whole. Nobody can question the difference between the Greece in 2019 and Greece in 2023.

"In four years, Greece became and continues to become economically, geopolitically and militarily stronger. A country that improved the citizens' living conditions in many sectors," Economou concluded.

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