Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis attended this morning the naming ceremony of the central meeting room of the Ministry of Environment and Energy as the “Stefanos Manos” hall.
“He was devoted to the mission of the public servant. A technocrat and a politician at the same time, even if some believed that he was very stubborn and sometimes moved forward without having, let us say, a sense of the risk of the political consequences of his decisions,” the Prime Minister stressed, congratulating the Minister of Environment and Energy Stavros Papastavrou for his initiative.
“He had, however, a deep sense of duty and justice, and above all he could see far ahead and far into the distance and certainly introduced new concepts into Greek politics, long before others discussed them. I think that in his major choices he has every reason to feel absolutely vindicated,” he added.
Kyriakos Mitsotakis unveiled the plaque bearing the name of Stefanos Manos together with the Minister of Environment and Energy Stavros Papastavrou, the late politician’s wife Kirsten and their son Alexandros Manos.
Also attending the ceremony were the Deputy Ministers of Environment and Energy Nikos Tsafos and Maria Eleni Soukouli-Viliali and ND MP Kostas Skrekas.
The Prime Minister’s full speech:
“My dear Minister, ladies and gentlemen colleagues, I am so pleased that you are with us today, the representatives, the wife, Kirsten, Stefanos Manos’s son, his wife, Miranda, a very close associate of Stefanos Manos.
I think that for all of us who had known Stefanos personally and had appreciated these particular characteristics of his, today is a beautiful day and I want to thank the Minister for his initiative to give the Ministry’s central meeting room Stefanos’s name.
I had the pleasure of knowing him from a very young age, he was a close associate of my father, in the difficult period of the 1990-1993 government. Sometimes I wonder whether things would have been different, perhaps if he had taken charge of the fate of the economy a little earlier.
But what I remember about Stefanos is a man who was devoted to the mission of the public servant. He was both a technocrat and a politician at the same time, even if some believed that he was very stubborn and sometimes moved forward without having, let us say, a sense of the risk of the political consequences of his decisions.
He had, however, a deep sense of duty and justice, and above all he could see far ahead and far into the distance and certainly introduced new concepts into Greek politics, long before others discussed them.
I will keep this phrase, which I also see here on the board, which I associate with his course, that “the environment is a great comparative advantage for our homeland in global competition”.
And he himself understood that protecting the environment is not simply a responsibility we have toward the next generation, but something that adds economic added value to our homeland.
I think that he essentially opened the way for me as well. When I had become President of the Environment Committee of the Hellenic Parliament, he was the first person I consulted at the time, because I want to remind you that in those days environmental protection was considered the exclusive privilege of the political space of the Left.
We in the center-right did not speak at all about the environment, we considered it some kind of luxury, and I set myself, as much as I could and as much as it was in my power, to reverse this logic.
And of course, the first person who had opened the way for us and opened our eyes was Stefanos, with whom I kept in touch even after I became President of New Democracy. He always advised me in his own distinctive way.
I do not think he was a person who minced his words, but he was also a person who, when he thought you had done something good, did not hesitate to acknowledge it.
So for me too, but I think also for everyone who knew him, today is a beautiful day. And I will keep, I would say, the almost universal recognition that Stefanos received after he passed away. I am sure he would have preferred this recognition to have come earlier, but he knew very well that politics is like that.
In any case, I think that in his major choices he has every reason to feel absolutely vindicated. I think that even today, especially on issues related to land uses, he would be very satisfied by the fact that for the first time we are moving forward with an organized planning process, from the national spatial plan to the various spatial plans concerning sectors of construction activity and above all the local spatial plans. This effort had never been made before in the country.
He will certainly be happy that we are finally managing to complete the Cadastre and that the country is acquiring something that is considered a given in very many other European countries: an organization regarding land uses, of what one can build and where in our homeland.
So, I do not want to say much more. Congratulations again, Minister. Kirsten, Alexandros, thank you very much for being with us today and I think that everyone who enters this room will see the value in this… I remember, when I gave the central hall of the Cabinet the name of Dimitris Stefanou, who was a very close associate of mine at the Ministry of Administrative Reform and a public servant in the full sense of the term, devoted to duty, every time I go in and see his name I think that it is not simply an act that has a symbolism, it reminds us all that we are here as continuers of a course.
And we too will leave at some point and others will come, but some people at least in certain policies opened the way for us and that is something we must acknowledge”.