Μake us preferred on Google Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis spent Friday in Pieria, a region of northern Greece where his governing party, New Democracy, appears to be losing ground to forces on its right that are winning over disaffected voters.
He met with the local mayor and chaired a meeting with local officials at the town hall of the municipality of Pydna and Kolindros, where matters of concern to the region were discussed. Afterward, he walked through the center of Kolindros, stopping in the main square to talk with shopkeepers and residents, according to a government briefing.
Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis meets with Christos Kompatsiaris, the mayor of Pydna and Kolindros, at the municipality’s town hall in Pieria on Friday, Oct. 2, 2026. (Dimitris Papamitsos/Prime Minister’s Press Office/Eurokinissi)
Opening the meeting, Mitsotakis presented the visit as part of an effort to narrow the gap between Greece’s regions. The government, he said, is drawing up local development plans for each regional unit, an initiative led by Thanasis Kontogeorgis, the deputy minister to the prime minister, together with lawmakers and the regional administration. “I always talk about the need for a Greece where all Greek women and men have the same opportunities and access to the same services,” Mitsotakis said. “There is no forgotten region of our homeland for us, which is why I attach so much importance to regional convergence.”
Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis meets with Christos Kompatsiaris, the mayor of Pydna and Kolindros, at the municipality’s town hall in Pieria on Friday, Oct. 2, 2026. (Dimitris Papamitsos/Prime Minister’s Press Office/Eurokinissi)
Also present were Sofia Mavridou, the deputy regional governor of Pieria, and the region’s three New Democracy lawmakers: Xenofon Baraliakos, Anna Mani-Papadimitriou and Spyros Koulkoudinas. The latter had raised a few eyebrows earlier this week with his comments on the purchasing power of Greek households. The relative newcomer in Greek electoral politics suggested that the Greek economy “is holding up for now” and pointed to traffic on Syggrou Avenue, a major Athens thoroughfare, as evidence. “If you can’t afford to spend 10 euros a day on gas to get to and from work, you use public transportation,” he said, adding that he had seen no drop in road traffic.
The rest of the visit
Mitsotakis’s schedule in Pieria continues with a stop at the Holy Monastery of Saint Dionysios on Mount Olympus. At 5 p.m., he is due to speak in Litochoro at an event marking the addition of Olympus to UNESCO’s World Heritage List. He will then visit the cultural center and the music school in Katerini, and at 7 p.m. he is scheduled to meet with residents there.
On Saturday morning, he will be in Thessaloniki with Bulgarian Prime Minister Rumen Radev for the signing of a protocol on the exchange of relics between Greece and Bulgaria, at the Museum of Byzantine Culture.
