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New Democracy Leader Addresses Party MPs, Slams Govt for 'Populism Tsunami'

mitsotakisMain opposition New Democracy leader Kyriakos Mitsotakis gave his inaugural speech as President to the party’s Parliamentary group on Thursday, thanking the MPs “for keeping New Democracy upright in 2015, during the populism tsunami that swept the country.”
“The country’s political map has changed; it is not the same from the moment that 400,000 citizens took the situation into their own hands. Their mandate is that we proceed united to renew New Democracy, so that it once again becomes a major center-right party,” Mitsotakis said.
He warned that Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras should not expect New Democracy to act as a crutch, stepping in to give support as and when it was needed. His mandate from New Democracy voters was to be a tough and responsible opposition, Mitsotakis added, not support Tsipras.
“New Democracy provided support in the summer when the country was in danger of being left outside European institutions. Following that, however, Mr. Tsipras chose his government partner after the elections,” Mitsotakis pointed out.
According to the New Democracy leader, the SYRIZA-ANEL coalition government “was seriously harming Greece” and was the final chapter of “populism and political amoralism” that New Democracy would now close. Mitsotakis made a single exception on the issue of revising the Constitution, however, he said he would raise this in his first meeting with Tsipras.
He went on to highlight the need to attract investments to Greece and the necessity of reforms.
“We believed in the reforms, which we will explain to the Greek people. If the government does not manage to attract 100 billion euros in investments in the next years, the country will not emerge from the crisis,” he said.
On the issue of the gold mines in Skouries, Mitsotakis said the government was sending the wrong message to those thinking of investing in the country and dismissed the legality concerns invoked by the government as a mere pretext.
He then outlined his next moves in order to reorganize the party, announcing that a regular party conference will be held as soon as possible, while some possibly painful changes will be immediate, including a switch to exclusively private funding and a move away from the expensive party headquarters on Syggrou Avenue.
“From now on, New Democracy will be supported by private financing. We will appeal to our members and ask for a little bit from many… We will build a party that is not ossified, that will talk with society. We will open New Democracy to society and once again make it a dominant political force.”
He announced the new Parliamentary group secretary, Costas Tsiaras, with Nikos Dendias, Yiannis Vroutsis and Niki Kerameos as Parliamentary spokespeople.
(source: ana-mpa)

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