Thanasis Kontogeorgis, Greece's deputy minister to the prime minister, said Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis's visit to the island of Kastellorizo was a move to protect the country's borders and sovereign rights, as he addressed a wide range of political developments in televised remarks on Friday.
Speaking on the Greek channel Open, Kontogeorgis said the prime minister would not ask permission for when and where to travel. He described the trip as a visit of high symbolism and an act of national self-confidence and soft power.
Kastellorizo is Greece's easternmost inhabited island, lying in the eastern Mediterranean just off the southern coast of Turkey. Kontogeorgis noted that the visit carried added weight because it was from Kastellorizo, 17 years earlier, that Greece announced it was entering a bailout and loan mechanism during its debt crisis.
Thessaloniki Fair pledges and tax changes
Kontogeorgis said Greece was in a different phase now, adding that it was positive that discussions at each year's Thessaloniki International Fair, the annual trade fair traditionally used by the prime minister to unveil the government's economic policy, no longer centred on restrictive or austerity measures but on improvements. He said the government tries each year to take a further step and deliver an improvement felt by as many citizens as possible, and that this year's effort was to reach as many people as it could without creating problems the country would later have to face.
On the government's package of measures, Kontogeorgis said no one would be fully satisfied, but that the priority had been to support the most vulnerable alongside the self-employed and farmers, whom he called the driving force of the country's production mechanism, by strengthening support that already exists.
He said that from March onward, self-employed professionals filing tax returns would see the results of last year's tax reform. He said it was a positive step that no business in the regions would pay the business activity tax, and that around 200,000 self-employed people would see a significant reduction in the tax they pay following changes to the presumptive income criteria used to calculate their liability.
Asked about criticism from Konstantinos Bratakos, president of the Athens Chamber of Commerce and Industry, over the government's measures, Kontogeorgis said Bratakos was, rightly and in line with his role, highlighting the issues that most concern the sector he represents.
Dispute over Left Coalition's spending program
Kontogeorgis was also asked about his clash with the Hellenic Left Coalition, the new party led by former prime minister Alexis Tsipras, over the estimated 18 billion euro cost of its program. He said his estimate was not made recently but a few weeks after Tsipras announced the new party and began proposing specific measures.
He said the aggressive debt write-off Tsipras had proposed, offset against deferred tax that would have applied from 2028, carried a cost of 8 billion euros that someone would ultimately have had to pay.
Kontogeorgis said there was a gap between what he called the fanfare with which Tsipras made his announcements and a non-paper later circulated by the Hellenic Left Coalition's economic team. He said that if there was no attempt at political deception, there was at least considerable carelessness, adding he would not comment on what he called the extreme statements made about safe deposit boxes and a global database.
He also pointed to a discrepancy between Tsipras's original figures and comments made the previous day by party economic official Mr. Koutentakis, who said the program's cost was 7.5 billion euros annually rather than spread over four years, which would put the total closer to 30 billion euros. Kontogeorgis said this inconsistency reflected carelessness that did not inspire confidence.
He said the government would submit its own pre-election program to Greece's Fiscal Council for scrutiny, and that any measures brought to parliament would be accompanied by a corresponding report from the General Accounting Office.
Focus on Greece's border islands
Returning to the Kastellorizo visit, Kontogeorgis said the government cared about every corner of the country, pointing to ongoing efforts toward development and social cohesion on Greece's small, remote border islands. He said the prime minister would address that subject during his remarks from Kastellorizo.
Tribute to singer Giorgos Mazonakis
Kontogeorgis also referred to the death of singer Giorgos Mazonakis, describing him as a man who had followed his own path and was especially beloved. He additionally referred to remarks by Greece's health minister on the need for a stricter legislative framework governing the operation of private medical clinics.
