The nation’s path to the progress of the homeland has not always been linear, Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis said in a Sunday government report on Facebook.

Mr. Mitsotakis emphasizes that despite improvements in many areas, there have been setbacks that have held back our national development, and that citizens “expect proposals, solutions, projects, not toxicity and pointless quarrels.”

Facebook post

“Good morning everyone. Let me begin today’s review by wishing all Greek men and women in all corners of the world on the occasion of yesterday’s national anniversary of March 25. The beginning of the struggle for the freedom of our people, as well as the beginning of the two hundred and two-year march for the progress of our country.

Of course, this course was not always linear. Unfortunately, he also had many setbacks that delayed our national development. With pain – recently and tragically – we saw that we failed to build a state that radiates seriousness, responsibility and professionalism at all levels. We have improved in key areas, but we still have a lot of work to do. This is what citizens expect from political forces. They are waiting for proposals, solutions, projects, not toxicity and pointless fights.

That’s exactly what I’m trying to highlight with this weekly report: to talk to you about the projects, the steps that are taken every week, small and big.

So, I’ll start with our commitment to gradually reopen rail traffic with increased security measures. Additional rows will be added every two weeks so that there will be a full growth by Easter.

At the same time, a new OSE Crisis Management Coordination Center has been set up and is operating, with the participation of the Hellenic Police, the Fire Brigade, EKAV, as well as Hellenic Train, in order to better control the security systems and act very carefully. quickly with the update of all safety specifications of our rail network. We will do our best to restore the trust of the passengers to the Greek Railways.

I believe that this will be facilitated by the introduction of the Digital Work Card in public utilities, including the ESE and ERGOSE. This is what I decided to do immediately, after what we saw happened at the Larisa station on the fateful night of the accident, with the stationmasters absent from their posts and the notorious “bachelors”.

Thus, until the end of April, the digital work card will apply to OSE and ERGOSE, as well as to fixed communications, OSY, OASA, OSETH, OASTH, Attiko Metro, Building Infrastructures, Egnatia Odos, EYDAP and ELTA, and will cover approximately 18,000 employees.

I remind you that the Digital Work Card has begun to be gradually introduced in banks, supermarkets, branches of insurance companies and security companies. With its application, time tracking is screened and the presence of employees at the workplace is verified without error, which facilitates the immediate detection of false statements by both employers and employees.

Last week, a very important provision was passed in Parliament, which for the first time directly in the law ensures that water remains in the public domain. Unfortunately, the opposition is trying to distort reality by claiming that the government is promoting the privatization of water. Nothing more false. Water is a natural monopoly. It belongs to the state, state-owned companies.

And so that there is no doubt, Article 3 of the new law very clearly defines that water suppliers are state and municipal enterprises (the well-known DEWA). But what is perhaps little known is that there are 295 municipal organizations in Greece today that manage water. So today, 62% of their water is wasted, only 42% of the DEJs publicly release the data they require by law, and in some cases the cost of water is doubling! Under SYRIZA there were 9 fines and under the current government 62 fines for all these problems. We must and can do better. We want to fix this with an independent body that is public oversight with institutional continuity, so we need an independent body to oversee these organizations, and that’s what the bill is doing.

I completely change the subject and want to emphasize that there can be no – we will not allow – “Galatian villages of lawlessness” on Greek territory. In Mykonos, the law will apply. That is why we voted for an amendment that will suspend the issuance of building permits in non-developed areas of Mykonos, with the exception of minimum exemptions that meet the requirements of the law. The competent authority for issuing permits will be the Department of Architecture, Building Regulations and Licensing of the Ministry of Environment and Energy, i.e. the central office of the Ministry in Athens. We put up a barrier to every illegal act, every illegal plan that is tried to be carried out through blackmail and illegal behavior.

Another thing that I think is very important is the development of a National Obesity Prevention and Control Program for both adults and children. The Ministry of Health collaborated respectively with the University of Western Attica and UNICEF to prepare a plan to combat obesity, a problem that has also taken hold in our country.

To give you an idea, according to the latest data, only 30.3% of the general population are of normal weight, 37.6% are overweight and 32.1% are obese. 3 out of 4 families have at least one parent who is overweight or obese. Of course, obesity is not an aesthetic problem. This is a health issue, as it is a risk factor for many diseases. It is for this reason that efforts to combat it are part of the Spyros Doxiadis National Preventive Public Health Program.

Thus, the adult program allows, among other things, to receive free services from nutritionists, as well as free specialized combined treatment in cases of severe obesity associated with serious chronic diseases.

On the other hand, the National Action against Childhood Obesity targets children under the age of 17 throughout Greece. Of course, this work requires the participation of both parents and teachers. The program provides free clinical assessment and counseling on children’s health, development, nutritional status, and free counseling services provided by appropriately trained health professionals. Both of these programs are funded by the Greece Recovery and Resilience Fund 2.0.

Now about accuracy. It’s been 21 weeks since we introduced the Home Cart, which kept hundreds of items prices stable. And this is not just what we are saying, this is confirmed by a scientific study by EKPA and Philips University of Cyprus. In this regard, however, I want to point out that Greece was in 6th place with the lowest food inflation in the EU. for February. Countries like France, Portugal, Germany, Belgium and Spain are showing higher inflation than we are.

Obviously, the introduced accuracy has not disappeared. However, we are trying to mitigate the impact and will continue to do so for as long as necessary. So, on the eve of Easter, an Easter basket will be created for supermarkets with products such as lamb, goat meat, buns and chocolate, and a Godmother and Godmother basket will be created exclusively for toy stores. They will start from the end of March and will last until April 15.

Last, a contract was signed this week to transfer the assets of the HENA shipyard in Scaramangas to a new investor, Mr. Prokopiou. This is the result of a huge effort we have made to give our shipyards a new look and we are very pleased that after so many years of decline in a very important industry, all 3 of our shipyards will come back to life. business.

I leave you with a small but important image that we have all seen this week, depicting three fragments of the frieze, metopes and pediments of the Parthenon that the Vatican Museums attribute to the Acropolis Museum.

And thanks a lot for your time.

Good luck and once again, happy birthday everyone!”