it's an amazing thing when you show generosity of spirit to someone. and you want people to be saved and to have a better life, then you don't stop. the idea that we have saved five million people's lives, it's overwhelming. it's everything. >> the greek prime minister, who

many have credited for the transformation of the country and its economy. from the basket case if you're up to one of the continent's economic performers. in this episode of leaders with laqua, and his first interview since being reelected, he sets out a series of plans and objectives for the next four years. he tells me how he wants in-store greases investment status, lower inequality and continue the fight against populism. >> prevail through politics of competence, we move the party towards a political center. there is future beyond populism and we have proven that if you run, you can make it possible to get reelected. >> he speaks candidly about his push to legalize same-sex marriage and bounce booming tourism with the need to protect his country's natural beauty. >> there are parts of greece which have reached a saturation point, and if we have to place restrictions, we will. francine: my conversation is

next on leaders with laqua. prime minister, you have a second mandate from the greek people, what is your intention on how that will unfold in the coming years? >> i'm very, very happy, honored and proud to be able to secure a second mandate. we actually got a share of the vote we got in 2019, which is unusual for incumbent governments at these difficult times. i want to make sure that i use a strong mandate to drive forward an aggressive reform agenda, and to make sure that greece makes up for the lost ground of the crisis and actually converges with europe at a very fast pace. a high-growth basis my number one priority, this will give us all the fiscal space to drive through important changes in health and education, and other policies in areas i deeply care about. francine: when you get investment grade, what is that

change in terms of possible investors coming into the country? >> i think it changes a lot of current -- a lot of things. they cannot invest in greece because we are not investment grade. as you know, we are already trading as if we are an investment grade country, but we also need the official stamp of approval by the rating agencies. i think it will further lower our cost of borrowing, which is important in a high interest environment. we've been able to defy the trend so the economy will grow significantly in 2023. this is also giving us the fiscal space to further reduce our debts. we will be able to actually repay ahead of time our facility for the next two years, and i think this will also send a positive signal to the markets that not only are we focus on growth, but we also want to make sure that our chat to gdp ratio continues to decline at a rapid pace.

we will -- it's a commitment to investors, we will accelerate the reforms, and we will make sure that whatever reforms were implemented, will be done in such a way not to compromise our country's fiscal position. greece went through a lot, a very painful time. we will never, ever relive these difficult times, but i think we proven that you can drive high-growth and reasonably reduce taxes at the same time with very healthy public finances. and i do expect our debt to gdp to continue to decline significantly. of course, this will give us the fiscal space to make sure we ensure markets that we are serious and pay part of our debt ahead of time. francine: how difficult is this with cost-of-living? >> the cost of living is very difficult to us. it hit the poor segments of the society, disproportionately hard. two points, we have low-inflation that most european

countries and we are successful in using targeted measures to help those in greater need. we resisted the temptation to lower the taxes. now i'm happy to see that lots of the studies are coming out now point out exact to the fact that it does not lead to a reduction in inflation. just give us a fiscal space to use targeted measures, we will continue these targeted measures when it comes to the supermarket. we are concerned about food prices. i prefer direct cash transfer to more runnable greeks to help with a supermarket and build on a horizontal cut which will train my public finances and will not be effective in terms of containing inflation. francine: i don't know how much assess to do with the war in ukraine, when you expect food inflation to come down? >> i wish i had a crystal ball, but what i do know is that it is

coming down faster than other european countries, although it is still an area of concern, and of course interest rate policies are not driven by us, we have to adjust, but it's good news, for example, in greeks consumer confidence, pmi has been growing, where as in the rest of europe it has been a downward trend. we define a trend. not only will we avoid a recession but we will grow by more than 2%. this year, give them their circumstances, it feels pretty good. francine: if you look at the opposition, you have the up, but you have three far right parties, are they pro-russia? >> we have a comfortable majority in parliament, and essentially, we have a 23% gap from the position. the left series suffered a strategic defeat in these elections. and i'm happy because we

prevailed through politics of competence region. remove the party to the political center, so there is future beyond populism and we proven that if you run a competent government, you can make it possible to get reelected. so i think this is a good message for everyone fighting an election against populist weather from the left or the right. as far as extreme right, we have three small parties in parliament. we have parties that managed to be above that. it probably 12 or 13%. for her to have these parties we have no idea what they stand for. it will make parliament probably louder and more -- i don't know if it will be more interesting, but the extreme right is not organized in the way it is in other countries, and we certainly don't need the extreme right to govern. we govern on our own of this was always a strategic choice. making sure that we attract enough people to have an absolute majority.

so, we are able to do that, these are fringe parties. some are pro-russia, not very explicitly, indirectly, but they are not a big factor in greek politics. francine: you don't think it's a warning to come? >> i always take the grievances of people who vote for protest party seriously. it is true that some people do feel marginalized, they feel threatened, they feel that maybe the world is moving at a faster pace and they are being left behind. but in greece, because we went through a crisis, i think there's been a process of greek society really maturing and may be actually in terms of the political development, leapfrogging what has happened in many other european countries. we want a second mandate, which is even stronger politically. i think it says something about greek society.

in that sense, it gives the necessary pretty debility to investors because i always said that you need to terms to really do a big transformation project. so i think investors are looking at greece and they look at for years without -- until the next national election, stable government, safe pair of hands, so i'm sure that they like what they see in terms of politics of the country. francine: up next, tourism accounts for a fifth of greece's economy. as visitors flocked to the country and its pedophile islands, the prime minister insurers he doesn't trade nature for short-term profit. >> i want to make sure that, five years from now, we will not have sacrificed the beauty of the natural environment at the interest of a very rapid growth. ♪\

that first time you take a step back. i made that. with your very own online store. i sold that. and you can manage it all in one place. i built this. and it was easy, with a partner that puts you first. godaddy.

francine: the relationship between the united states his -- win nt risk itself from the world's second-largest economy, but how should a european nation like greece and beijing question mark i continue the conversation with the prime minister. prime minister, what kind of relationship to what will china? >> within the context of the european union hive u.s. a whole. we can work with china on various interest but they are also a competitor, they are a rival on many other issues, but we are advocating for a comprehensive european approach. vis-a-vis china. we don't want to decouple. and we cannot decouple, but we want to do risk. that means a more measured intelligence approach for china, which is also relevant for us.

china is an important market for our agriculture. it could be an important market in terms of bringing in chinese tourists. it's much less important as a social capital. when you look at infrastructure projects and how we funded, nothing like that came from china. we were over line our policy. francine: when you say it's possible to decouple would you say codependency is too big on certain ships? >> in a globalized economy, i'm not so much talking about this, i'm talking about the globalized economy, it's a reality. we want more independence of the supply chains, but there's a limit to how much we could do that. francine: what's you worry most about, you look at tourism booming but it means islands are overcrowded. >> thank you for asking this question because i want to make sure that in five years from now

we will not have sacrificed the beauty of our natural environment at the interest of the rapid growth. that's fine really focusing on sustainable growth, that's why i will always push for quality over quantity. very strict in terms of standards, we are actually looking at our local and regional planning legislation across the country to make sure we know exactly what we can build and where we can build it. there are parts of greece which have reached a saturation point, if we have to place restrictions, we will, in order to protect, especially islands, which are more sensitive. francine: does that look like a tax? >> there's only so much we can build. i don't want to single them out, we are not there yet in terms of thinking of taxes. that's not something that is currently in the cards. i'm more concerned with how any people we can get on an island

and make sure the island is still functioning. but for tourists to have a positive experience. when something is overcrowded, people don't necessarily appreciate it. it's not rocket science, we are beginning to do it and planning it, so when you have cruise ships, they'll have to, the same time. you can manage them in a smarter way to make sure we get more cruise ships, but also that the island does not overflow with visitors. francine: how much time are you going to spend tackling tax evasion? >> a lot, this is an important issue. is not just a question of equity, it's a question of making sure we have additional revenues for our schools, our health care systems. we made good progress and to observe reducing the -- we have been very diligent in terms of making electronic transactions more attractive. covid helped us and not -- in that direction and we saw, at

times, the results. and as we digitize the entire supply chain, making it easier for our tax authorities to be more targeted and smarter in terms of going after tax evasion. francine: were you frustrated that it wasn't as fast as you thought it would? x yes, in terms of the gap we have made good progress. we had a legacy of tax evasion, but this is also something that is very much related to collective trust, people feel that they get quality public services, they will be more inclined to pay their taxes. we have also proven that if you lower taxes in an economy that has a tradition of tax evasion, it can bring in more revenues. not sure for all countries. in our case it was very much true. our strategy of gradually

lowering taxes actually works, and has actually brought in more revenues. francine: up next, the prime minister on why pushing for lgbtq rights is one of his priorities. >> homosexual people couldn't even give blood before we came into power. we still have horrible conversion therapies, which are technically illegal for gay teenagers. i would ban all that, and we will continue to implement our strategies. ♪

francine: creeks is one of the main routes for refugees from the middle east, asia and africa. in june, hundreds died and were lost at sea as a fishing vessel crowded with migrants and asylum-seekers capsized off the coast of greece. as book to the prime minister about the tragedy. prime minister, coast guard's have not been portrayed in a positive light recently because of migrant boats that have sank. are you taking actions to make sure that does not happen again? ttragedy like the one that

unfolded, in international waters, but off the greek coast. we have been able to make the strategy work on we have broken the smugglers networks. it's very unfair, when i look at ngo's are part of the international press, they place emphasis on the coast guard's but they don't talk about the smugglers who put these desperate people on a boat that was obviously not seaworthy. every time there's an incident, there's always an investigation, even regarding this tragedy, there is an ongoing investigation. obviously i cannot comment. putting a finger at the coast guard, our coast guard has saved tens of thousands of people. it's unfair, it's unjust as a strategy because at the end of the day, what we don't want is a post strategy. we have to be vigilant in protecting our borders but we need legal pathways.

either for humanitarian reasons, for refugees were for economic migrants. one of our goals increases to expand labor market participation, and when i look at certain jobs, for example, the agricultural sector, we have difficulties finding people to actually do these jobs. and i would much more prefer, and we are already placing these types of programs, to have an arrangement with a country such as egypt or bangladesh where we offer work visas for people to legally work here and they will come and work on they will be insured and they don't need to embark on a dangerous ship and we will control the policy. we cannot let this policy be controlled by smugglers. francine: do you feel let down by the european union? should they be helping you more in trying to deal with the situation in the refugee camps? wax to be honest, it is changing the approach of the level of the european council, placing much

more emphasis on the external aspect, which is essentially the border. they have founded a lot of our camps. if you go to the islands now you will see ultramodern facilities. five years ago it was under a socialist government which supposedly was progressive and cared about the human conditions of migrants. so, there has been support for the european union. i would like them to be bolder and also openly finance barriers are what we call offenses, but other measures to help us protect our border, and of course, also working with rentech's. it's not in ngo. maybe some people in the european parliament think it should be an ngo, but it should not. it's a border protection unit, heavily funded by the european union, and we are always working

with it in whatever issues arise, we always try to resolve them. francine: there's no change of policies on refugees? wax or has been a change of policy at the level of the council, which is most welcome. we argued a lot about it to make sure we place the external dimension of migration front and center because we were talking a lot about the internal dimension, which is, how do we move people once they enter the european union, who should be responsible for welcoming, are we going to have quotas, and these are difficult topics. but we reduce the number of people who enter. legally we would not be able to address a problem but this is not sufficient. we need to offer legal pathways and be more effective when it comes to returns. francine: you've done a lot of work on lgbtq rights, how much will that continue? >> we have lgbtq equality strategy that we are putting in place. it's a work in progress but we are happy about some of our

initiatives, which also mean a lot to me, homosexual people could not even give blood before we came into power. we still had horrible conversion therapies, which were technically legal for gay teenagers, i would ban all of that. we will continue to implement our strategies as a long-term project. but i think greek society is much more ready and much more mature. it's interesting all these initiatives have been launched by a center-right government, not the previous government which belong to the left and this is testament to the fact that we are a truly progressive government. francine: we only reach true equality when you have same-sex marriage? >> it will happen at some point. it is part of our strategy. it is a work in progress. we have civil union already and

at some point this strategy will come -- francine: how would you describe yourself as a leader? you've delivered on your goals and have done better than expected in the polls, what drives you? >> i don't like so much to talk about myself, but i would really like to look at greece after eight years and say we have made big changes. this is not just about management or playing defense, it's really about change of the country. this country, if you look at the 200 year history, has gone through spells of really big changes happening. i hope i can make my own contribution and making sure we completely break out of this spell that really dragged us towards the bottom during the second decade of the 21st century.

we lost 25% of our gdp. this was the biggest contraction since the second world war in any way see the country. but this is an opportunity to really change the country. and essentially what i can do is really make sure i have the forces. i want them to cooperate in their country. francine: what's your biggest dream for greece? >> to become a global protagonist in those areas where we can be a protagonist, and to be able to catch up in those areas where we are still laggards, and to address what i consider to be the three big challenges, which is the environment, the digital challenge, and the opportunities and threats of ai, but the most important challenges income inequality. at the end of the day, i want to look at the growth that we delivered and i will be happy if we see less inequality rather

than more. it is always a risk in rapidly growing economies that you have more inequality. we've been able to lower inequality over the past four years because we have actively supported those in need. at the end of the day, it's about giving opportunity to those who are less privileged. this is what really excites me and makes me work harder when i feel tired. francine: do you think that's why people voted for you or is it because they did not have a real alternative? >> maybe in 2019 people voted for us because they were fed us with the previous government. in this election people voted for us because they bought into our story and vision for the future. it's unusual to see this level of support in a western democracy, in a multiparty system. i think they placed their trust in us, and we have to reciprocate. so a big victory gives us cause

for celebration that will last for hours. and you have the weight of people expectations on her shoulders, the weight of the office on your shoulders and you tell yourself, people have given you a mandate for big change. francine: prime minister, thank you for your time today. >> thank you so much. ♪ the power goes out and we still have wifi to do our homework. and that's a good thing? great in my book! who are you? no power? no problem. introducing storm-ready wifi. now you can stay reliably connected through power outages with unlimited cellular data and up to 4 hours of battery back-up to keep you online. only from xfinity. home of the xfinity 10g network.