During his election campaign, Greece's Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis pledged to roughly quadruple the length of the current steel border wall with Türkiye over the next year at a ceremony.
The government intends to increase the wall's present length of 37.5 kilometers (25 miles) by 35 kilometers during the following 12 months. By 2026, more than 100 kilometers of the wall will have been added, according to government officials.
Due to long-standing disagreements with Türkiye and vast emigration of refugees and migrants into the European Union in 2015–16, which was mostly precipitated by the war in Syria and Iraq, border security continues to be a hot topic in Greece.
Mitsotakis and other officials charged that the left-wing Syriza party was attempting to sabotage the project and prevent the government from securing funds from the European Union.
During a campaign stop in Orestiada (Kumçiftliği), a town close to the Greece-Türkiye border, Mitsotakis spoke to supporters and expressed concern that there are political forces in Greece today that are opposed to this proposal.
"Let them make their position known: Would they demolish the wall we've already constructed and reinstate an open-borders policy? Or are they going to protect it and aid in securing Greece's borders?" asked Mitsotakis.
The government, according to representatives of Syriza, is distorting the opposition's position, and the European Commission has already ruled out direct funding for border fences.
Dimitris Papadimoulis, vice president of the European Parliament and leader of the Syriza delegation, stated on the Greek radio station Real FM, "We are not going to tear anything down." We also support EU funding for necessary border security measures, such as purchasing night vision cameras and coast guard vessels.
Papadimoulis accused the government of pandering to far-right voters and trying to distract attention from a deadly rail disaster last month that has triggered public anger and cut into Mitsotakis' lead in opinion polls.
The government argues the wall has functioned as an effective deterrent against illegal migration, helping prevent more than 250,000 crossings at the land border last year.
