Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis, in his weekly government report, refers to the government’s commitment to affordable and quality housing for young people, as those interested will be able to apply from tomorrow.

He also notes that on Friday a proposal was received from three working groups that were formed to implement a legislative initiative to create a university-level public school for the performing arts and form a national structure for conservatory education.

Finally, speaking about raising the minimum wage, he states: we promised before the elections that we would increase it at a rate twice the rate of growth, and as a result, we increased it at a rate three times the rate.

“Good morning! This is the first Sunday review since the May 21 election date was announced. Just because the election is slowly approaching does not mean that our work has stopped, and this week I have something to tell you!

And I’ll start with our commitment to affordable and quality housing for young people. From tomorrow Monday, young people and young couples aged 25 to 39 will be able to apply to banks for an interest-free or soft loan to buy their own home. Thanks to the state subsidy, the cost of servicing the loan will be lower than the rent they will pay. A loan for those who have three children and a large family (as well as for those who will have three children during the loan repayment period, and then a large family) will be completely interest-free. And for the rest of the beneficiaries, it will be only ¼ of the commercial interest rate.

The beneficiaries of the specific part of the My Home program will be about 10,000 people. The program as a whole has a budget of 500 million and could even be doubled if the initial amount is spent. The next steps are: the “Survey” program for placing vulnerable young people in private houses with state rent for 3 years (the first contract with the municipality of Galatsi has already been signed), programs for social compensation and renovation of private houses.

It is true that Greece for many years has been an inhospitable country for its young people and has not given them the opportunities they should have. Solving this problem is one of our main tasks for the next four years, if the citizens again trust us. We want to make the lives of citizens, especially young people, much easier and more creative, so that they feel again that the state is next to them.

And since the first step to a creative, better life is education, I want to tell you the news that filled me with optimism. Model and pilot schools have received over 20,000 applications this year, 2,200 more than last year! We have invested in exemplary and experimental schools, doubling them from 62 to 120 in 3 years (which was one of our major campaign commitments) and the response from citizens is the best evidence that this institution is increasingly accepted. These figures indicate the strong interest families have in acquiring strong educational resources for their children.

I’ll stay in the Education section, but now we’ll move up a notch to talk about starting an Industrial Ph.D. This is a program aimed at creating links between academia and business/industry, which will bring many benefits to everyone. To give an example, a company that manufactures wind turbines and is looking for a new way to manage waste might partner with a university and a PhD to conduct research on a topic of interest. This innovation is being implemented for the first time in Greece and it adds value to our children’s diplomas and makes our public universities more open to entrepreneurship and the market.

But, I confess, I did not accidentally mention the example of renewable energy sources. I mentioned this because I want to show how the example of Halki shows even the most skeptical of the benefits of using renewable energy. Thus, in Halki, for the first time in Greece, the residents of the municipality produce the energy they consume and cut their electricity bills to zero. 34% of annual PPC invoices were billed at zero, 40% below €100 and 26% (mostly business accounts) under €800.

How did it happen; From the operation of a state-of-the-art 1 MW photovoltaic park built on the beautiful Dodecanese island as part of the GR-Eco Islands program. The governing body of the photovoltaic park is the Energy Community of Chalkis “Kalchion” with members of the inhabitants of the island and with the participation of the Municipality of Chalkis with 50% of the cooperative capital. The goal of the GR-Eco Islands national initiative is for the Greek islands to become pioneers in the production of solar and wind energy, which they have in abundance, and solve the problem of climate change, promoting sustainable development and strengthening the green economy and advanced technologies.

Changing the subject to talk about another important issue for the whole society – the protection of workers and inspections of companies for compliance with labor laws. Within a few days, inspectors from the Independent Body “Labor Inspection” got access to 500 tablets connected to the Unified Information System of the Labor Inspectorate and the upgraded “INSTRUMENT II”. This new way of monitoring is also combined with the introduction of a digital work map to identify areas and sectors with the greatest delay for action faster, more reliably and more impartially.

In line with our commitment to the world of art, a proposal from the three Working Groups we have created—one for theater and drama, one for dance, and one for music—was introduced on Friday with the aim of passing legislation to create public university-level faculty in the performing arts and formation of a national system of conservatory education.

Let me remind you that all the jointly competent ministries participated in the inter-ministerial groups, and extensive consultations were held with representative industry and student unions. In a country like ours, with a great and long history of theatre, dance and music, it is impossible not to study at the university level in the performing arts.

It is also worth noting the passage of the protection framework a few days ago for hitherto undeclared and unpaid rehearsals of artists. In particular, it was found that rehearsal time is working time, i.e. paid for working hours. This was a constant demand of sector workers, since undeclared and uninsured rehearsals were a perennial problem that no government has regulated until now. Finally, another back-to-back case from the government, which proves in practice that it doesn’t “hate” the culture, as we hear from some.

The panic button program aims to protect girls and women from a different perspective. I told you this before, now I want to tell you that this application is now available for women who have been victims of domestic violence and are at high risk. Women who receive it now have the ability, by pressing and holding the corresponding hidden button on their mobile phone, to immediately alert the police to interference, wherever they are. I hope this will make a positive and significant contribution to the early prevention of violence. And saving a woman is a huge benefit.

With funds from the Greece 2.0 Recovery and Resilience Fund, we are creating 106 new mental health structures. Two of them, concerning support for dementia patients, their carers and their families, were opened and started working a few days ago: one in Neo-Heraklion and one in Arta. These are day centers that offer diagnosis, treatment and follow-up for people with problems with memory and other mental functions. Neo Heraklion even set up a mobile relief team. In both cases, the help of the Athens Alzheimer’s Society and the president of the National Observatory of Dementia was essential.

Specialist scientists inform and educate caregivers and families of patients, who unfortunately are also increasing in our country. An estimated 160,000 people have dementia and another 280,000 people have a mild pre-dementia mental disorder. If we calculate that each patient is affected by the lives of the two or three family members who care for him, this condition directly or indirectly affects approximately 1 million Greeks.

Our priorities have been and will be the security of the country. It was a great success for EYP in collaboration with EL.AS. in time to detect a terrorist network that was preparing an attack on a Jewish restaurant-synagogue in Athens. But security also means protecting borders. This policy is reflected in the Evros fence along the Greek-Turkish border, which is also the border of Eastern Europe.

The fencing under the contract signed on Friday will be extended by 35 kilometers, reaching a total of 140 kilometers. With autonomous surveillance systems and new army and police outposts. And even more border guards, the number of which will increase by 250 people, most of whom will be from the Evros region.

One of the reasons why we have been able to keep over 250,000 illegal immigrants out of Greece in recent years is because of the fence – we all remember scenes at the border in 2020. This expensive but necessary project, the official opposition asks not to finance it from the European Union, as it could according to the conditions, but the Greek taxpayer pays. I leave it up to you how some turn a national need into a national exception.

I’ll end up with minimum wage – I won’t expand too much since I’m assuming you already know about the raise. But I’m not sure it was emphasized enough that although we promised before the elections that we would double it, we ended up triple it. This is one of the few times I’m proud that we broke our promise.

And so I come to the end of today’s review of a full week that has brought small and big steps for the better. And thank you very much for your time!”