The Alternate Minister of National Defence Dimitris Vitsas in an interview that he gave on Tuesday, 31 October, 2017, on SKAI TV to journalist Dimitris Economou stated, among other things:

Regarding the opinion polls:

I will not change my view about the opinion polls; it’s the same since we were the Opposition; they record an instant image. There are some errors; this is why the opinion polls are not verified in the end, in respect to the manner in which companies use their time series.

The University of Macedonia usually makes opinion polls that do not predict favourable results for SYRIZA party. The basic thing one can observe is that all along this procedure, it seems that New Democracy party has a ceiling.

At the same time, there is a much bigger percentage of people who do not express any preference, in this opinion poll which is estimated between 20 and 25%. This is the pool of people who express a creative and active anticipation about what may happen. They see the effort and they expect to see what will happen.

I am following the opinion polls and the changes in other smaller political parties. What matters most, is to keep a firm position which will solve the problems of the country and of society. This is the key matter.

Regarding the course of the economy:

I would like to tell you that we are making good progress as far as our main objectives are concerned; specifically, the fact that today everybody agrees that in August 2018 the financial supervision period will end, is very positive. The fact that for the second year in a row we are achieving a high primary surplus, of which a part will be returned as social dividend, is positive. The third fact, that a number of financial indicators tend to increase, is also positive.

There is a reduction of expenses and particularly the work of the Ministry of Finances in the inspection of expenditure, has provided good results. I know this from my own Ministry as well, where we do the same by ourselves.

There is clearly an issue of taxation, but the one matter should not impede the other. We cannot, on one hand, say that there is a reduction of income due to tax fatigue and, on the other hand, that we achieve our objectives due to tax matters. We cannot achieve both easily.    

The perspective, after the austerity measures are completed, is for a procedure of de-escalation to begin regarding the taxation and the reinforcement of the social provisions, and it will begin from those who have the lowest income. From there on, based on a plan, we can see a programme of motives.

Our commitment for 2019, 2020, 2021, is a commitment to produce primary surplus. How this will be achieved in relation also with the progress of the economy of the country, I think it is obvious we are not just talking about a combination.

We pay great attention to this: we cannot simply expect that we will complete the implementation of the austerity programme and then the only restriction we will have, will be the agreement of the European Union with all the states. We should be careful, not to lose, in the next years, what we won over all the previous years.

Someone should remember that, through practices and policies of the previous governments, we reached a debt of 320 billion euro, so overspending is not a solution or a counterbalance to taxation or, in some cases, to over-taxation.

Regarding criminality:

We have seen criminal or violent behaviour over all these years, but this is not typical of our country. On the contrary, over the last period, we had – as the Minister for Citizen Protection Mr. Toskas says, who does a very good job, not in words, but in actions and is very right in my opinion – very good accomplishments and it is not true that the Hellenic Police is not allowed to do their job.

Regarding Minister Giannis Mouzalas and the refugee issue:

Giannis Mouzalas, all along since the interim government in which he was Minister until today has been doing a great job. What one should remember is that he does a great job and he should continue doing it.