Addressing prospective voters in the coastal Athens suburb of Paleo Faliro on Tuesday, Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis emphasised that a vote for New Democracy in the upcoming European Parliament elections on June 9 signified a "strong Greece, a proud Greece within Europe".
Even though they did not coincide with general and local government elections, Mitsotakis said, this in no way diminished the significance of these elections, as they would decide the country's representation in the next European Parliament.
He stressed that Europe will largely determine Greece's future in the next five years, as it had done in the previous five years, with the difference that "things in the world are much more difficult in 2024." After a pandemic, the war in Ukraine, an energy crisis, a cost-of-living crisis and the upheaval in the Middle East, he added, Europe was struggling to find its footing in a world that was changing and Greece must retain a leading role in this effort, he added.
Among the things that have changed, Mitsotakis said, was the way that Europeans see Greece: "No longer as the black sheep of Europe but a country with self-confidence that has put its public finances in order, which faces the future with confidence, whose voice is heard in the important decision that Europe is making for its own future."
"We want to succeed in getting the largest possible number of ND MEPs, who will participate in the European People's Party (EPP) Parliamentary group, the largest political family in Europe. On the one hand, in order to preserve first place for the largest centre-right party of Europe, and on the other hand, to also shape in our own way the significant developments in Europe in the next five years," he said.
Mitsotakis emphasised that ND was the party that had ushered Greece into Europe and had fought to keep it there during the difficult summer of 2015, the "party that strives every day to bring Greece closer to Europe...with significant results".