“We may have political differences, but the people of Greece and Turkey are friends. And this is proved by the wave of support that was expressed throughout the country,” the Prime Minister said. Kyriakos Mitsotakisthrough his Facebook post.

At the same time, he thanked the EMAK employees who work for earthquake victims his area Turkeyemphasizing that “they filled us with pride”.

“I want to start our Sunday meeting with a big thank you to the EMAK staff who are working in the earthquake-hit regions of Turkey under such adverse conditions. We were all touched when we saw how 5 people were pulled alive from the ruins of residential buildings – three children, a 20-year-old girl and a 50-year-old man. And they filled us with pride. But also self-evident deep grief over the scale of the disaster. We often say “biblical catastrophe” but that is the only way to describe the magnitude of what we are seeing.

Our country has done the obvious, as it did in 1999, and as we will always do. We hastened from the first moment to place the possibilities of the Greek state at the disposal of the authorities of a neighboring country. As I told President Erdogan, in this hour of need and suffering, we are here for whatever help they need. We may have political differences, but the people of Greece and Turkey are friends. And this is proved by the wave of support that swept across the country.

Natural disasters always remind us of the responsibility of the organized state to its citizens. Responsibility for strengthening our infrastructure and investing in civil protection structures and people. We’ve been doing this since day one. Let me give you just one illustrative example: the General Secretariat for Civil Protection, when we came to power, worked in public service mode, that is, from Monday to Friday, from 7:00 to 15:00. Today, he operates 24 hours a day in a new, state-of-the-art building, using technology to provide immediate information so that there is an immediate response. But, of course, it is not enough to react quickly – there must be preventive actions, but also learn from your mistakes.

And let me explain: this year DEDDIE has increased its tree cutting around stations by 70% and its investment in network upgrades by 50%. That is why during the severe weather that hit central Greece and Attica, there were less than 90 accidents in the power grid. Last year with Elpida there were 200-250 on medium voltage and more than 400 on low voltage, while in 2021 with “Medea” they achieved 1200 faults at medium voltage and at least 1500 at low voltage.

Of course, I also heard the argument that we took a lot of action because of the snow. But I would like to ask you: isn’t it better to have an active state than to have an absent state apparatus?

However, it looks like the climate crisis will create more and more extreme weather events. Therefore, on the occasion of frosts, I want to remind you that our farmers now have a free digital application that notifies them in time – three days in advance – about the approaching frosts so that they can take action. . The application is available in the cloud of the Ministry of Digital Governance and will be mobile-ready by the end of the month.

But if I had to single out one digital service out of the hundreds that make everyday life easier for citizens today, it would be the digital patient card. It seemed unbelievable, but today it has become a reality thanks to the MyHeathApp application, which is constantly updated with new services. It started with medical referrals and digital appointments with a personal doctor, with 431 lab tests and hospital references added this week. They are provided digitally by 59 public hospitals (almost half of them), as well as private diagnostic centers.

This means that every citizen, as well as the attending physician, will have access to our entire medical history with one click so that they can make the best diagnosis. This is a project that, in combination with other digital modernization projects and the interconnection of our hospitals and health centers, we aim to change the face of the NHS and the citizen experience for the better by 2027.

This week also saw the launch of a scheme to create childcare places in 120 businesses. The existence of such spaces in business is widespread abroad, and it is time to do so in Greece, as it makes it much easier for working parents. This is one of the many initiatives we have taken to support the family and employment of young parents, and is funded by the Recovery Fund.

A decision was signed this week to renovate and expand the infrastructure of the Hellenic Pasteur Institute, a €25 million budgeted action also funded by the Recovery Fund. Two “green” buildings with state-of-the-art laboratories will be built, and a Center of Excellence for Research on Emerging and Emerging Pathogens will be established.

This week we received two important news from the House of Representatives. The first concerns the career, health and wages of the leaders of the Armed Forces. As we recognize that ED executives’ salaries continue to be low relative to their mission, in addition to what was voted on, special salaries will also be adjusted from January 1, 2024.

The second news was an amendment designed to protect the democratic order from criminal organizations. It is aimed not at blocking ideas, but at protecting the democratic constitutional order. And it’s really very sad that not all parties were set up for this goal.

I will conclude with two good news related to the strengthening of industrial activity in the region. 6 years ago, PepsiCo Hellas closed the Inofite plant and moved production to Romania. Today, part of this production is returning to Greece at the EPSA facilities in Volos. At the same time, in Sindos, at the Olympic Brewery production unit, the production of the most famous product of the Danish giant Carlsberg begins. Perhaps we are used to hearing news about the departure of production units from Greece. For many years this was the norm. We have fought hard to reverse this trend. So that the business no longer leaves, but returns. Make Greece attractive for investment.

In those years when there was a trend of companies leaving Greece, I remember that it was also difficult to hear a voice in favor of competitiveness and attracting investment. You see, there was a simplistic rhetoric against the private economy, against big business, the rhetoric of the demonization of “capital”, and anyone who dares to talk, for example, about lowering taxes on business, will be attacked with characteristics that I do not know. I don’t want to repeat. However, today I believe that the attitude of Greek society towards these issues has also changed. Because we all now understand the total profit that society has when the economy is attractive for investment, when it produces, when it creates jobs. And we are still only at the beginning of the journey. Because the potential of Greece is huge. Over the past 4 years, we have begun to unblock them and will continue to do so as long as we have the trust of citizens.

With this promise, I would like to thank you for your time and wish you a very good Sunday.