Adonis Georgiadis: I would support extending the requirement to the private sector as well.

With attacks on Greece's geopolitical position and the characteristics of its population, which for millennia has been a mixture of European and Eastern elements, he peppered his statements on the morning news program. Ant1 ο Minister of Development and Investment Adonis Georgiadis.

The vice president of the New Democracy party confirmed once again that the government attempted to coerce the population into vaccination, causing hardship to citizens and passing on the financial cost to them. «Instead of struggling with rapid test and pay out of their own pockets, why don't they just go and get the free vaccine and be done with it?» he said characteristically.

And immediately afterwards, shifted responsibility for the poor performance of the vaccination campaign not in its design and implementation to respond to the population, but in the characteristics of the populationWe said it once, twice, three times: all European countries have reached the immunity threshold they wanted. Portugal at 90%, Ireland at 90%, Spain close to 90%, etc. Okay, let's not always look like the odd ones out in Europe, my friend. Everyone else has been vaccinated... Greece's vaccination rate is significantly better than all Eastern European countries, but worse than all Central and Northern European countries. It is again in the middle, as it has been throughout most of our history. We look to the West, we love the East... a large percentage of people think more emotionally, saying «I don't want it because it's mandatory,“ ”I don't know who makes it,“ ”they made it because they are chasing us,“ and other such picturesque remarks. conspiracy theories ... are more popular in Greece than in countries such as Denmark or Belgium. What can we do...».

With this logic of «excellence» that rebels because the Greeks do not seem to obey without objection, Mr. Georgiadis seems to have only one answer: enforcement. «Many other countries have taken mandatory measures—and more than us. If you ask my personal opinion, we have hesitantly moved toward mandatory vaccination; we should have moved toward greater. Mandatory vaccination has worked in elderly care facilities and in healthcare.

And in response to a question about possible extension of compulsory vaccination to private sector industries, Mr. Georgiadis said that «at some point, if the pandemic does not go away and doctors say there is no other way, I wouldn't rule it out at all; I personally would support it.».