Gov’t firm on illegality crackdown

Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsostkis insists that his pledge to enforce the law “everywhere” is being implemented, with a crackdown on crime in all its forms. “You will remember that at the Thessaloniki International Fair, I spoke about ‘legitimacy everywhere.’ It is a direction that is being put into practice at all levels: against fan violence and attacks against women, against juvenile delinquency or organized crime, but, at the same time, against the various hotbeds of tax evasion, illegal enrichment, arbitrariness, as well as migrant trafficking,” Mitsotakis has been quoted as telling close associates.

To this end, government sources note recent initiatives such as the tightening of the Criminal Code, setting up special departments in the police, speeding up the administration of justice, and “investigations and actions that are often carried out quietly.”

According to the same sources, Mitsotakis has taken the fight against lawlessness and delinquent behavior personally in his second term in office. “It is a battle that touches me personally. As prime minister, I am satisfied when profiteering in the market is targeted. As a citizen, I feel good when arbitrary buildings fall in Mykonos, and knowing that our borders are protected. But also as a father and husband who is outraged at every femicide, I am relieved when a woman is saved or a gang of hooligans is dismantled,” Mistotakis reportedly told his aides.

Of course, Mitsotakis is under no illusions that the results will be immediate and on all fronts. With regard to the mass arrests of hooligans last week over the fatal injury to a police officer in December, he said the evidence shows the effort is paying off, but that it is a deep-seated problem “besieging all modern societies.”