Kyriakos Mitsotakis referred to the current political news and government work, in the weekly commentary he makes every Sunday from his Facebook account.
The prime minister refers to one of the main priorities of the government, which is the restructuring of the National Health System, while he also stands for the strengthening of Public Education, following the announcement by the Ministry of Education regarding the 10,000 new permanent appointments of all specialties. He also talked regarding the efforts being made to reduce the accuracy and the first encouraging data from the Eurostat estimates, while he did not fail to mention, at the end of the commentary, the new Coldplay video clip that was filmed in Herodion and is an excellent promotion for Greece .
As the Prime Minister says:
“Good morning! Although it’s the first weekend of July and I know many of you are already or regarding to go to the beach, I’m sticking with our weekly “date” and getting right into today’s review topics!
So the first subject of the review and also of our government policy, the National Health System. The restructuring of the National Health Service is one of our major priorities, we support and strengthen it in every way, not only in terms of infrastructure but also in terms of human resources. On Thursday, therefore, two important government decisions were signed. The first one enables the doctors of the NHS to be able to provide private work, once they have completed their scheduled weekly working time. What do we want to achieve with this? To deal with the leakages we have in critical specialties to the private sector.
The policy of increases that we already apply to the salaries and allowances of health personnel to the limit of our fiscal possibilities is working but it is not enough, as a private doctor today can secure much higher incomes. At the same time, we also give the possibility to private doctors to be able to provide, if they wish, work for the NHS, in order to cover the existing deficiencies. And to give you an idea of what has been done in terms of staffing the NHS in the last five years, there were 78,272 doctors and nurses serving in June 2019 and 86,138 in June 2024, an increase of 10%.
The second decision concerns the new form of incentives to fill the gaps in doctors in the remote islands of Greece, the so-called barren line and mountainous areas. I will only cite the example of Kos: there have been 11 announcements for 4 positions of pathologists at the island’s hospital without any interest, while there are many private pathologists there. What are these new incentives? The net monthly allowance for barren areas is tripled and an additional allowance is instituted for specific specialties in these areas. In case of moving to meet needs, in addition to their salary they will be paid an additional 2,100 euros and they will be able to have free housing at the expense of each Municipality. Therefore, in combination with the possibility to carry out private work on the island, an attractive set of incentives is created to staff hospitals in remote areas.
I move on to another priority of our government, the strengthening of Public Education. In previous years, we made a significant investment in human resources, which we continue to do. I remind you that until last year, for the first time following the crisis period, 28,300 permanent teachers were hired. For the next school year, we therefore announced 10,000 permanent appointments of all specialties, the highest number of permanent appointments in recent years. Of the 10,000 positions, regarding half (4,451) are replacements for retired teachers under the one-hire-one-retirement rule, while the remaining appointments (5,549) are to fill vacancies that were previously filled with substitutes. Our goal is to reduce the number of substitute teachers by at least 50%, permanently filling the gaps in our schools in order to offer our children the best possible quality of public education and teachers a stable working environment where they can develop and they perform their function without interruption.
On Thursday I visited the Ministry of Labour, where really good work has been done in the last five years, which is also reflected in the indicators: unemployment has decreased – I will refer to this below – thousands of new jobs have been created, while the working environment has improved. And this is precisely what the Digital Labor Card contributes to: a better working environment, where labor rights and incomes will be protected, punishing employer arbitrariness where it exists. That is why we remain faithful to our commitment to be applied in all sectors of the economy. I should mention here that in those sectors where it has been applied, the figures in Ergani show an increase in the declared overtime and, by extension, in the incomes of the workers.
As I said, the work done at the Ministry of Labor is also reflected in the reduction of unemployment, where our country recorded very good performance in the first quarter of this year as well. We are first among OECD countries in the rate of job growth among 15-64-year-olds and also first in increasing female employment. In terms of young people and women, I know we are still significantly behind the rest of Europe. That is why we are already planning measures to achieve even greater participation of them in the labor market and the same applies to the participation of pensioners and the disabled.
On the price de-escalation front, the battle we are fighting continues. We have some first encouraging data from EUROSTAT’s estimates showing that the measures we have taken in the past period to limit fictitious discounts and make competition work better are paying off. Inflation in the category of food, alcohol and tobacco in our country is 1.3% in June, once morest 2.4% in May. In these categories, in fact, we have the 2nd lowest inflation, following Finland, at Eurozone level. Accordingly, we see a study by IELKA now recording small price reductions on a 12-month basis. Of course, we didn’t solve the problem, I know that. That is why we are continuing our efforts to further reduce food prices. I remind you that price control interventions are extended until 31.12.2024, such as, among other things, the ceiling on the profit margin and the quintupling of the upper limit on fines for violating the provisions of the ceiling (from 1,000,000 euros to 5,000,000 euros) , the extension to the “household basket” and the limitation of the ceiling on infant milk.
An interesting tidbit: the first tax imposed by the state in 1836 was the “stamp duty”. So today, 188 years later, the government puts an end to a burden that reasonably caused discomfort to the citizens, without any benefit for the State. It is now abolished by law for more than 600 transactions both between private individuals (eg utility loans, insurance transactions, etc.), and for private transactions with the State (eg marriage license, professional licenses, etc.). For those cases where the stamp is retained, it is replaced by the Digital Transaction Fee. So, we are reducing the tax, but bureaucracy is also being removed from the citizen’s transactions, simplifying an antiquated system.
Now let’s go to “digital”. Before I mention what’s new, let me share with you some good news: according to the European Commission’s annual report on the Digital Decade, in 2023 our country made remarkable progress in the digitization of public services, while also registering the greatest improvement in this sector. Within four years, Greece has approached and many times exceeded the European average. This recognition obviously satisfies us, but it makes us “stubborn” and even more so to continue with the digitization of the state!
Thus, the digital state extends to road safety as well, with electronic confirmation of traffic violations in Athens and Thessaloniki. How will this be done? The Police officers will use specially designed mobile devices of the “Smart Policing” project and with the use of an appropriate application, they will now electronically confirm the traffic violation. Upon completion of the police officer’s actions, the violation certificate will be sent in real time electronically to the citizen’s inbox at gov.gr, utilizing the interoperability and contact information from the National Register of Citizens’ Communications, while at the same time it will be updated by email and SMS to send a message to his mailbox.
Penultimate topic of today’s review, the climate crisis. Dealing with it is not only a national issue, but requires global mobilization. As a country, we take advantage of every opportunity that is given to us. For the first time, Greece acquires a new “technological toolbox”, with 7 Microsatellites, not to look into space, but to increase its operational capabilities on Earth. They will provide imagery and data for firefighting and will complement the Copernicus system, helping to record illegal construction, monitor marine pollution and illegal fishing, agricultural crops and many other areas.
The relevant agreement for the construction and launch of the Microsatellite cluster in 2026 was signed a few days ago between the European Space Agency (ESA) and the company Open Cosmos. The financing of the Program in the amount of 60 million euros comes from the Recovery Fund. At the same time, the opportunity will be given to many highly specialized Greek engineers to be employed with high salaries, but also to Greek companies in the sector to participate in the investment and upgrade their capabilities.
The unprecedented disasters caused by extreme climate events in our country, made it a major need to institute a new mandatory insurance framework, starting with large companies, so that government aid goes to those who really need it. This new framework was passed a few days ago by the Parliament and provides for the possibility for citizens and businesses to be insured for damages from natural disasters. At the same time, it strengthens the institution of state aid to those affected, provides for the granting of housing assistance in cases where the main residence is uninhabitable and strengthens – organizationally as well as operationally – the Fire Brigade and overall the General Secretariat for the Restoration of Natural Disasters so that they can quickly perform , their work transparently and efficiently.
I close today’s review with culture. For those of you who haven’t seen it, I urge you to watch Coldplay’s new video clip, which was shot at Herodion and is an excellent display for our country. A wonderful song with a unique monument in the background.
Somewhere here I will leave you, renewing our appointment for next Sunday. Good morning!”.
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