ATHENS – The government has made it clear that it will continue to support consumers, households and businesses so that energy costs remain at an acceptable level, Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis said on Tuesday while visiting President of the Hellenic Republic Katerina Sakellaropoulou for the regular monthly briefing.

He stressed that the government was well aware that many people were struggling to get by and repeated that it was doing everything possible to support society and especially its weakest members without exceeding the fiscal limits of the economy.

According to Mitsotakis, the message was that the “growth dividend can be shared fairly based on the targets we have set,” while adding that “we cannot deviate from the targets we have made a commitment [to meet]”.

Referring to the recent European Council meeting in Brussels, the prime minister said that this had succeeded in reaching a “significant agreement to make more drastic decisions to reduce international prices of energy and natural gas, while he insisted that the mere threat of more drastic action had been taken into account by the markets and led to a good response on a European and national level.

“I hope that European leaders will be able to find solutions beyond their individual interests and think of the collective good; it is important for European economies but also European societies,” President Sakellaropoulou said in response.

Message for breast cancer prevention and Fofi Gennimata programme

The prime minister also referred to the success of the Fofi Gennimata breast cancer screening programme, named for the late politician that lost her own battle with cancer, under which one million sms messages were sent to women aged 50 to 69 to come in for free testing.

“Prevention saves lives,” Mitsotakis said, commenting on the anniversary of Gennimata’s death, which coincides with World Breast Cancer Day, and pointing out that 40,000 women had made use of the programme and over 2,000 had been diagnosed with tumours.

“We must encourage all women over 50 to make use of these free tests. The key message is prevention, the use of all programmes and opportunities to fight breast cancer,” Sakellaropoulou said.