Continuing its reform agenda with four bills set to go before a Cabinet meeting convening today at 11:00 a.m., and pushing for price reductions on supermarket shelves from September onward — these are the key priorities of Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis, who is pressing ahead with his regional tour while also taking pointed jabs at the opposition, and at Alexis Tsipras in particular.
Speaking in Aigaleo, where he continued his summer regional tour on Monday, Mitsotakis took aim at “those who are once again recycling old promises and outdated slogans,” saying: “As if we’ve forgotten where those recipes led us a few years ago. We haven’t forgotten. We haven’t forgotten the experiments that nearly pushed us over the edge.”
Kyriakos Mitsotakis: What was agreed with the food industry and supermarkets
Earlier, at a meeting with representatives of the food industry and supermarket chains, a two-month price freeze moratorium was agreed upon. With prices locked in for July and August, and the profit cap measure expiring today, June 30, behind-the-scenes negotiations are set to intensify over which products — and how many — will be sold at lower prices from September. “At the meeting with industry and supermarket representatives, there was a shared understanding of the need for this de-escalation to be reflected in product prices — in the first phase covering the two summer months, with prices fully stabilized and no increases whatsoever,” said government minister Takis Theodorikakos following the meeting at Maximos Mansion, clarifying that “this also applies to the 2,000 product codes whose prices have been reduced by 6% in recent months due to the strict enforcement of the profit cap measure we had imposed on an emergency basis.”
Over the next two months, as Mr. Theodorikakos explained, “preparations will be made so that, from the beginning of September, a drastic reduction in the prices of essential consumer goods widely used by the average Greek household can be implemented as a product of a national social agreement — since our shared goal is consumer protection.”
Government interventions to tackle the cost-of-living crisis
Speaking in Aigaleo, Mitsotakis focused heavily on the cost-of-living crisis, pointing to wage increases, tax cuts and income support measures as the government’s counterstrategy — effectively signaling that this policy course will continue. “This is the only defense, my friends, against the problem of high prices, which I know is testing every Greek household today. There are no easy solutions, no magic formulas to instantly bring prices down,” Mitsotakis said.
He also expressed confidence that, on the basis of the agreement reached at the Maximos Mansion meeting, “in September we will begin to see a meaningful de-escalation in prices for key products in the Household Basket.” He further pledged that, when it comes to the price of unleaded petrol and diesel, state supervisory mechanisms “are on the front lines to ensure that any reduction in oil prices will ultimately be passed on to every individual consumer in the form of lower petrol and diesel prices.”
The four bills going before the Cabinet
The agenda for today’s Cabinet session includes the following items:
– A presentation by Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of State Kostis Hatzidakis and Minister of State Akis Skertsos on the government’s performance review for the first half of the year and its priority agenda for the second half of 2026.
– A briefing by Deputy Minister of National Economy and Finance Nikos Papathanasis on the progress of the Recovery and Resilience Fund implementation.
– A presentation by Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of State Kostis Hatzidakis and Minister of Rural Development and Food Margaritis Schinas on agricultural payments, subsidies and compensation for June 2026 — a performance review and next steps.
– A presentation by Interior Minister Thodoris Livanios and Deputy Minister Vivi Charalambogianni on a bill for the reorganization and modernization of the National Centre for Public Administration and Local Government.
– A presentation by Labour and Social Security Minister Niki Kerameus and Deputy Minister Anna Efthymiou on a bill to strengthen occupational insurance, improve the operational framework and create incentives to attract participants to the second pillar of the social security system.
– A presentation by Minister of Social Cohesion and Family Domna Michailidou and Deputy Minister Elena Raptis on a bill to strengthen the Equal Treatment Authority, ensure the effective application of the principle of equal treatment, and transpose EU Directives 2024/1499 and 2024/1500.
– A presentation by Shipping and Island Policy Minister Vassilis Kikilias on an omnibus bill from his ministry.
– A submission by Justice Minister Giorgos Floridis on the selection of the President and Prosecutor of the Supreme Court (Areios Pagos).
– A submission by Minister of National Economy and Finance Kyriakos Pierrakakis on the selection of the President and Vice Presidents of the Legal Council of the State.
