Greek PM wants to double the size of a wall on the border with Turkey

Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis walks along the anti-migrant fence he wants to expand, March 31, 2023. © SAKIS MITROLIDIS / AFP

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Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis has signed an agreement to extend a wall on the land border with Turkey. He urged Europe to finance the extension of this metal fence.

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With our correspondent in Athens, Joël Bronner

In the middle of the electoral campaign, the Greek Prime Minister travelled at the end of the week to the Evros region, named after the river that marks the land border with Turkey in northern Greece. Kyriakos Mitsotakis signed a document confirming Athens' willingness to double the size of a long metal fence, which currently measures 37.5 km and has been growing since its installation began in 2012.

This week, the European Parliament once again unsurprisingly rejected Europe's request for funding for this wall. A wall that has already cost Greece tens of millions of euros and whose extension is estimated at about 100 million euros. In the past, Brussels has described this closure as a "short-term measure" that did not provide a "structural response" to the migration issue.

A hand extended to the electorate of the extreme right

This new European refusal, however, allows Kyriakos Mitsotakis to recall that this wall will be built whatever happens, even if it is "with national funds". "We contribute to European security and we also contribute to a European asylum policy [...] more efficient " he said. For the Greek opposition, just a month and a half before the general elections, the Prime Minister is mainly trying to seduce the electorate close to the far right, by once again displaying an image of firmness in terms of migration policy.

► Also listen: Accents d'Europe - In Greece, the case symbolizes the criminalization of aid to migrants

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Read on on the same topics:

  • Greece
  • Kyriakos Mitsotakis
  • Immigration
  • International migration
  • Turkey