“Following the attempted immigration invasion in March 2020, it became very clear to me that we needed a strong deterrent that would support our overall border security policy. Obviously, the fence is not the only tool we have, we have hired many border guards, we have strengthened the technical means to monitor the entire border, we have strengthened the coast guard to monitor our maritime borders. The Prime Minister continued and added:

“In fact, what impresses me is why what should have been self-evident becomes a field of political confrontation and comes to the point that the official opposition, through Mr. Papadimoulis, officially demands that this project not be funded from European funds” .

“I find it inconceivable that a Greek MEP is demanding that this fence be basically paid for by Greek taxpayers,” Mr. Mitsotakis also emphasized and pointed out that “Europe is funding a series of actions on the refugee issue, the only one that is not funding this moment – this is the construction of the fence itself.

“We will fight to convince them to take the final step. “But even if they don’t, the fence will be built from the republican budget,” he said.

“If we don’t have a fence, then what? Everyone will enter the country as they want, when they want, and we risk geopolitical pressure not from the persecuted people, but from those who use them as tools. What happened in Greece in March 2020 was repeated on the border of Lithuania with Belarus 18 months ago by the authoritarian dictator of Belarus Lukashenko,” he said.

Speaking about Alexis Tsipras, he said: “I don’t know what Mr. Tsipras will do because I hear many different voices. But I am absolutely sure that if he does not demolish the constructed part of the fence, he will not expand the fence and will not implement the project that we launched.”

Mr. Mitsotakis announced that he would probably visit western Thessaloniki before Easter “with important announcements,” as he characteristically put it. He also emphasized that the Thessaloniki Metro is being completed, despite all those who fought against this project or expressed suspicions that Thessaloniki could have both a metro and an ancient one. “Within the next year, Thessaloniki will have the most modern metro in Europe, and at the same time, the rich cultural values ​​found will be emphasized,” he said.

Source: RES-IPE