Kyriakos Mitsotakis is trying to put the brakes on the phenomena of introversion that have been threatening the government lately.During the week he was absent in the US for the UN General Assembly, the several intra-party… discordant notes did not go unnoticed by the prime minister’s circle and he himself deemed it appropriate to intervene personally during the cabinet meeting, sending the necessary messages to everyone.
Already, from the first morning coffee after his return, last Monday, Mr. Mitsotakis appeared annoyed by statements from blue party officials in the public dialogue, which shift the agenda in the… wrong direction and became an object of exploitation by the opposition parties.
In this light and given that the differentiations continued in the following days as well, his reaction yesterday before his ministers was deemed imperative:
“We know very well, ladies and gentlemen colleagues, that in public confrontation, style also creates impressions. Therefore, under these conditions, our speech must not only be persuasive, it must also be measured, unified and precise, knowing that at the end of the day we will all be judged by the citizens. But until then, of course, it is my responsibility to evaluate the individual behaviors of MPs and Ministers,” he noted and called on them to project the government’s work with “respect and modesty.”
The prime minister’s goal is to tidy up the intra-party “ills,” to prevent any new ill-judged statements, controversial positions, but also mutual barbs, which in no case benefit the party, a few months before the ballot boxes.
At the same time, also addressing recommendations to his officials regarding the manner and style they should have in their public appearances, Mr. Mitsotakis asked them to be “well prepared” on all issues -small and large- of current affairs and not to proceed to exaggerations in their effort to defend the government’s work.
“Magic solutions”
“Let us not deny the difficult everyday reality, but let us explain, with courage and confidence, that there are no magic solutions. Because the only way to overcome this international instability is that of internal stability and measures to support society, always based on our real endurance,” he stressed.
Indeed, after the presentation of the four measures to address inflationary pressure, the Prime Minister addressed the ministers again and conveyed to them that they should not appear in the Mass Media only for their portfolio, but for the entirety of the government’s work.
Regarding the Prime Minister’s statement that he himself judges the ministers, the government spokesperson, Pavlos Marinakis, was asked (on MEGA): “The judge, the one who evaluates government officials, is the prime minister, and the parliamentary officials, the president of the party, of the respective party, in this case Kyriakos Mitsotakis.
I believe that what we all need to do is, with decorum, with the right style, to project the government’s work. The prime minister evaluates us all, the citizens will evaluate us. And in general I think that the most important thing, and the prime minister’s example has shown it, is for politicians first of all to engage in self-criticism, and I am referring overall to the political system, and then to do their job as well as they can.”
At the same time, wanting to lower the tone, he estimated that this was not a message from the prime minister with some specific recipient, “but we are entering the final stretch and we understand the need for all of us together, united, without arrogance obviously, without wagging the finger.”