Mr. Mitsotakis is celebrating, an “historical moment” for the country.
Why is he celebrating?
Not because he secured cheaper energy for the citizens, nor because he took steps towards a clean and fair energy policy.
He is celebrating the new great “national idea”: the one of a multinational company that will search- by drilling the bottom of our seas- for fuels, a practice of the previous century, in a country that could pioneer the clean energy of the future.
What exactly is this so called “historical moment” for the country about?
The breaking in of a multinational into Greece, a development that the international press has already named an increase of the US footprint in the Eastern Mediterranean.
Let me repeat what I said in Parliament: It is extremely dangerous for the Government to identify the sovereign rights of our country with the financial interests of a private company.
Let’s depend a little bit more on multinationals, that’s the way to have an EEZ. That’s the government’s narrative.
So the International law is flouted, while it is carefully concealed that this particular company, like every large multinational, is playing simultaneously with every player in the region to its best interest.
Mr. Mitsotakis does not surprise us. He had also rushed to declare from Brussels last month that green transition and climate neutrality goals may be good enough, but industrial competition is far more important.
What kind of industries? Defense industries, what else.
The new big plan of the otherwise “environmentally friendly” Mr. Mitsotakis is just to assure that the large defense industries will profit of cheap energy.
At the same time, the World Climate Conference is starting in Brazil, with the UN Secretary General declaring that the 1.5 0C limit is a red line for humanity, so the goal must remain achievable, calling for a decade of acceleration into achieving results.
The New Democracy government is selling greater dependence on natural gas as energy security.
Meanwhile, citizens pay expensive electricity bills, RES projects are delayed, the country remains without an environmental framework, without investments in energy storage, without energy democracy.
We already knew it, that Greek Right had always tied the country to its worst past and the interests of the elites.
Today, when the main goal is to break free from fossil fuels and regain energy autonomy, New Democracy is plunging the country deeper into dependence on a form of energy that is already being devalued.
Today, when the crucial thing is to implement rules that will not allow the acceleration of the climate crisis and the disintegration of our societies, ND is following Trump’s anti-environmental agenda.
Today, that we need to prioritize public investment in networks, decentralization of production and self-production to escape the vicious circle of expensive energy, ND is siding with the interests of multinationals.
To gain what? Any deposits will belong to the multinationals and the country will only receive some meager royalties.
Environmental protection is not the error here.
The wrong element is the ND government, including its energy strategy based on extraction, dependencies and illusions of grandiosity.