The main priority if he wins elections for a second four-year term will be the National Health System, while justice will also need to move faster, Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis said in an interview on Tuesday.
Speaking to Alpha TV journalist Antonis Sroiter, Mitsotakis said he "always believed we need two four-year terms for anyone to change Greece. We definitely need two terms to say that Greece changed playing courts and became Europe."
The PM touched on many issues including the high cost of living, which he called the government's greatest problem right now and a global one. Subsidies and supplements are only for emergency use, he said: "The permanent measure is to reduce taxes, raise salaries, and I personally want the minimum (monthly) wage to reach 1,000 euros by the end of the second term."
Commenting on the upcoming elections on May 21, the Greek premier said he was optimistic, but realized also that it would be very difficult to form an independent government from the very first round, which would lead to a second round of elections.
Referring to his party, he said, "If New Democracy is elected and I am prime minister, we will achieve investment grade before the end of 2023." But main opposition SYRIZA leader Alexis Tsipras' program "will undoubtedly lead to a new loan memorandum of 45 billion euros. This would shake up the economy and send investors away. Do we want to kick the milk bucket, or will we persist on the path we have set out on?"
Among other issues, Mitsotakis said that the debate between him and Tsipras that the latter insisted on "should take place with all party leaders - and I am personally greatly in favor of it. One must not forget we are a parliamentary democracy."
Speaking of relations with Türkiye, he acknowledged the deescalation of tension and the rapprochement of the two countries after the devastating earthquakes in Türkiye in February, but expressed scepticism that its government would give up its stance on territorial claims on the Aegean Sea.