ATHENS (Reuters) – Greece’s re-elected Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis is expected to outline on Thursday his conservative government’s agenda over the next four years, which includes tax cuts and wage and pension increases.
Mitsotakis, 55, won 158 sets in the 300-seat parliament in a June 25 national election, securing a clear majority to push ahead with his plan in a country which emerged from a huge debt crisis five years ago.
He will address parliament for the first time since the election on Thursday afternoon and government sources said he was likely to stick to his pre-election programme.
The leader of the centre-right New Democracy party has pledged to help Greece regain an investment grade credit rating after 13 years, boost revenues from the country’s vital tourism sector and raise wages by an average 25% by 2027.
He has also promised to cut social security contributions by one percentage point, gradually reduce a business tax on the self-employed and increase a tax-exemption threshold by 1,000 euros for households with children from next year.
The cost of its programme is estimated at 9 billion euros.
Mitsotakis says Greece, still the euro zone’s most indebted nation, can achieve primary surpluses of around 2% annually, despite the relief measures.
With his statements, Mitsotakis will kick off a three-day parliamentary process which will conclude with a confidence vote on June 8.
The election was a heavy defeat for Alexis Tsipras’ Syriza, the leftist party which ruled Greece in 2015-2019, at the peak of its debt crisis. Tsipras lost 39 seats and resigned last week.
Fringe parties of the political left and right – including an anti-immigrant party calling themselves the Spartans – got a foothold in parliament.
Analysts have said it is unlikely that far-right parties that swept up over 12% of the vote, could define government policy. But they are expected to stir public debate on LGBTQ+ issues, migration and relations with Greece’s historic rival Turkey.
(Reporting by Renee Maltezou and Lefteris Papadimas; Editing by Toby Chopra)
