Mitsotakis in Florina: ND will seek to soften negative backlash of the Prespes Agreement

Speaking in the city of Florina in northern Greece on Thursday evening, close to the Prespes Lakes, main opposition New Democracy leader Kyriakos Mitsotakis said that he did not want people to associate this "blessed land" with what he called a "bad agreement", referring to the Prespes Agreement with North Macedonia.

"You are all well aware how responsibly we dealt with Tsipras' ‘secret negotiations’ and the decision to give away a language and a national identity (to North Macedonia)," said Mitsotakis, airing his conviction that the Prespes Agreement does not serve Greece’s interests. His party will do whatever ir can to "alleviate the negative repercussions of this agreement," he said.

He then moved on to the subject of pensions and relief measures, and said that New Democracy will try to create and sustain a permanent support mechanism for pensioners, while he mocked the goverment's decision to pay out June pension payments ahead of Sunday's elections, saying that he would not have been surprised if Tsipras had decided to pay out the July annd August payments ahead of the elections too.

The first and utmost priority for New Democracy will be to create many, many jobs for young people, and this can only be done via a national policy, a framework which aims to reduce taxation and social insurance contributions, he said.

Mitsotakis also addressed voters of other parties, saying that the stakes in these elections have a national dimension. "We will either go ahead or stay behind, as the ideological differences of the past are of little importance," he added and called on all to "come and join New Democracy, now is the time to join the battle."

"We will take Greece out of the stalemate and onto a bright path," said Mitsotakis, so "let's go for victory on the evening of May 26th."