When asked by Kostas Papachlimintzos and Parapolitika at the 90th Thessaloniki International Fair press conference, held at the “Ioannis Vellidis” Convention Centre, about his earlier statement that he had “learned from his own mistakes” — without specifying what those mistakes were — and whether he had engaged in genuine self-reflection, Kyriakos Mitsotakis acknowledged that he had done so, while making clear he would not allow seven years of significant government achievements to be dismissed or written off.
More specifically, the Prime Minister stated:
“I have been criticized for being a Prime Minister who has apologized many times. When you govern, you will make mistakes. And it is far better to acknowledge those mistakes with courage and to make sure you correct them. The worst mistake is the one you repeat. I believe that in my public discourse I have tried to be self-critical and honest. Certainly, I was wrong not to have had the courage earlier to transition OPEKEPE to AADE — we lost time and money in rationalizing it. The University Police force was unnecessary; we spent a great deal of political capital on an approach that was not the most appropriate way to address a real problem. We have challenges when it comes to the speed of implementing government policy — we need to pick up the pace and draw lessons from what we did well in building the executive state. I spoke about the need for the next four years to be the four years of an investment leap. We need time to sweep away the obstacles. We now have a Land Registry that has gone from 38% to 99% completion,” he noted, among other things, before adding:
“Self-criticism is one thing; self-flagellation is another. I will not accept that a very significant body of government work accomplished over the last seven years be leveled to the ground. Look at where we were in 2019 and where we are now in 2026,” he said pointedly, taking aim at the situation he inherited when he first came to power — referring specifically to unemployment, migration, and investment, among other areas.
