ATHENS — The pandemic has proved that politics is not about communication and big words but guaranteeing and protecting the life of the citizens, Health Minister Vassilis Kikilias said in an interview with the newspaper "Parapolitika", which ran a series of interviews on Saturday dedicated to the second anniversary of the current New Democracy government.

According to Kikilias, "it was amply demonstrated that we can rise to the occasion in even the most difficult conditions. Our country's upward course is continuing and will continue, in defiance of the times. We continue, uniting forces. We are here to succeed," Kikilias said.

With respect to his own portfolio, Kikilias said the government had successfully reinforced the national health system, ensured public health and a well-organised vaccination programme, whose level was superior to that of country's much stronger than Greece.

"In this way, the government was free to make broader actions and initiatives that allowed our country to progress when the rest of the planet was in retreat," he added.

According to Kikilias, this was also the great legacy of the last two years: "One would expect, in conditions of global health crisis, that the government's performance would fall short of the expectations of the people that voted for it in 2019. In the perfect storm, we not only managed to stay afloat – something that the great majority of countries on the planet did not succeed in doing – but also to make Greece a model country for the management of the pandemic on all levels. We held up and are holding up economically, in education and socially, we held up and are holding up as a state because the healthcare management of the pandemic became our country's great advantage."