The European Union must respond to Putin’s ‘black message’ as one: Greek Prime Minister Mitsotakis

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Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis said on Saturday that the European Union must have a coordinated response to Russian President Vladimir Putin’s blackout over natural gas supplies.

Putin’s invasion of Ukraine is aimed at “legitimizing blind tyranny and enabling any environmental troublemaker to do the same,” in a jibe at Greece’s neighbor Turkey and President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s increasingly bellicose rhetoric.

We stand with those who defend themselves in the war in Ukraine, we stand with democracy and freedom … We know what an (aggressive) neighbor means, Mitsotakis.

Putin wants to turn Europe’s energy crisis into political instability, Mitsotakis added in a keynote address at the Thessaloniki International Fair where Greek leaders announced economic policy for the coming year.

The Greek Prime Minister recalled that months ago Greece proposed to limit the price of natural gas and reduce the price of electricity from the price of natural gas.

Better late than never, he told reporters during a visit to the trade show earlier Saturday.

Mitsotakis said his government would continue to subsidize electricity bills regardless. But Greek authorities also add incentives to reduce consumption and replace natural gas with other fuel sources for heating as much as possible.

The Prime Minister announced additional measures such as a cost-of-living check of 250 euros paid to nearly 2.3 million beneficiaries, increases in pensions and minimum wages, tax cuts, and a 150 million euro subsidy to compensate farmers. Higher fuel and animal feed costs, better wages for the National Health Service and military personnel and others. Taken together, he said, these handouts would cost 5.5 billion euros, excluding electricity bill subsidies.

Since the beginning of 2020, Greece has spent more than 50 billion euros to support families and businesses affected by the Covid-19 pandemic and now by the energy crisis and rising inflation.

Greece’s inflation, at an annual clip of 11.4% in August, was down slightly from June’s peak of 12.1%, but still at levels not seen since 1994.

A strong economy, expected to grow by more than 5% in 2022, gives the government room to spend more. But from 2023, the heavily indebted Greek government must post its first budget surplus as agreed with the EU.

New elections are due next year, possibly more than one. The first election is not expected to give any party a majority in parliament and a coalition government seems highly unlikely. That would trigger a second round of elections fought under different electoral rules that would give the winning party a 30-seat bonus.

(Only the headline and image for this report may have been reproduced by Business Standard staff; the rest of the content was generated automatically from the syndicated feed.)

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