ATHENS – Addressing a meeting of the cabinet on Tuesday, Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis warned that, while the government had shown its ability to raise protective barriers against the rising cost of living and energy, the funds available were not inexhaustible.

“Our regular meeting is held in the midst of a period that has two aspects,” he said. “The summer continues to be extremely promising for tourism but also for exports and public revenues. The same is true with respect to dealing with wildfires and the decline in unemployment. In the international environment, however, dark clouds are massing, which bode for an extremely difficult winter,” he added.

Mitsotakis said that the conflict in Ukraine is continuing and “Russia is now attacking Europe as a whole with natural gas as its weapon,” adding that this was “a threat of strategic character” because everything indicated that Moscow, via this economic pressure, was seeking to create a social upheaval and political instability within the countries that react to its plans. “This is the cost that is undertaken by the front of liberty, international law and democracy,” he underlined.

He stressed that the time has come for the implementation of all the things he had urged seven months earlier, namely a common European response to the crisis.

The premier added that at a national level the government has proved, that it knows how and is able to raise protective barriers against the price hikes, that it had said and done this for electricity bills, and will continue to do this, as and when it is needed. “Beware, however, the funds are not inexhaustible,” he warned.

Mitsotakis said that the relief measures will be judicious, without allowing temporary need to create mine fields for national necessities. He stressed that the state should show courage and sensitivity and society must show responsibility regarding the need to find ways to save electricity.