PM Mitsotakis: Austerity cannot be the answer to everything

Meeting German Chancellor Angela Merkel in Athens on Friday, Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis underlined that Greece was now a very different country to the one she first visited roughly 10 years ago.

"It is not a source of deficits. It is a modern state," Mitsotakis underlined during joint statements with the German chancellor after a meeting between delegations of the two sides in the Greek capital.

Mitsotakis began by referring to the German Chancellor's "16-year journey as the leader of Germany," noting that it surpassed that of Konrad Adenauer and approached that of Helmut Kohl.

"As the 8th Greek prime minister to meet dear Angela, I can hazard a brief review," the prime minister said, noting that he wanted to the mark left by Merkel "and about today's Greece, which is very different from the one she has known over the last decade."

Mitsotakis noted that "Europe and Greece were tested by mistaken decisions that came back to turn against them, disguised as populism and demagogy."

"And you yourself admitted that you asked alot of the Greeks," said the prime minister, adding that "fortunately neither cheap austerity nor the cheap nationalist slogans endured. Community solidarity and true patriotism were ultimately victorious."

"Merkel was the voice of reason and stability. At times unfair, but decisive, as in 2015, when she refused the expulsion of Greece from Europe," Mitsotakis added.