Greece's PM pledges fiscal discipline, announces key reforms at trade fair

Greece's prime minister said Saturday that he won't let excessive spending get in the way of the country's recovery from a prolonged financial crisis that needed an unprecedented infusion of cash from its creditors, during a keynote speech in the country's most prestigious trade event.

"I haven't come with a bag full of gifts," Kyriakos Mitsotakis told his audience at the Thessaloniki International Fair.

Every September, heads of government use the fair to show off their achievements and outline their economic policies for the forthcoming year.

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The new post-pandemic fiscal rules of the European Union will keep spending growth under wraps and call for fines on violators. Mitsotakis promised to abide by those rules.

Mitsotakis also announced increases in pensions and the minimum wage, as well as measures to enhance exports and productivity, alleviate housing shortages, stem the desertion of farming by young people and deal with the country's alarmingly low birthrate.

Some of those measures, like a second round of low-rate mortgages for young families worth 2 billion euros ($2.2 billion), will be partly financed by the European Union.

Talking about the problem of tourism growth — too much for many — Mitsotakis said that although short-term rentals shouldn't be "demonised," he promised not to allow any new ones in central Athens for at least the coming year.

He also announced higher disembarkation fees for cruise ship passengers, especially on the tourist magnet islands of Santorini and Mykonos. About Santorini, government officials have let it be understood that the current fee of 35 cents ($0.38) per passenger could rise to between 10 and 15 euros ($11 - $16.60).

Mitsotakis, prime minister since 2019, denied his government was suffering from reform fatigue and from what he called the "second term curse."

Although the conservative party lost around a third of its share in last June's European elections - a contest with not much at stake and marked by record abstention - it came very close to doubling the score of the runner-up, left-wing Syriza, which also saw its numbers decline.

The Greek leader said that more than one thousand days are left before the government implements its program before the next national election, and he claimed his party is the only stabilising force in Greek politics.

It certainly faces little challenge from the opposition, where the two largest parties, Syriza and the socialist PASOK, are consumed by their internal divisions. Syriza leader Stefanos Kasselakis was facing a motion of no confidence at the party's central committee meeting later Saturday. The socialists are fighting their own leadership contest in early October with seven sharply differing candidates.

As if to underline the opposition's impotence, the traditional, often violent, protest marches - there were three, by unionists, communists, and ultra leftists - were the most sparsely attended in years probably ever, with only about 7,500 people participating, according to the local police. They ended without incident.

Thessaloniki is the country's second-largest city, while the surrounding regions are considered strongholds of the extreme, nationalist right, the main beneficiary of the European elections, in which three parties received more than 16 per cent of the national vote and sent deputies into the European Parliament.

Mitsotakis made sure to tout the projects his government has completed in the area and noted he had appointed the popular and populist regional governor of Central Macedonia to be Greece's next EU commissioner.