THESSALONIKI, Greece (AP) — Greece’s conservative government promised sweeping tax breaks and pay hikes before a general election next year, as thousands gathered in protest late Saturday over the high cost of living.
“Our country has overcome stagnation and is now ready to taste the fruits of its efforts,” Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis said. “As the country stabilizes, there will be relief from heavy taxes, higher incomes and bold reforms.”
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Farmers take part in a protest rally during Thessaloniki's international trade fair, in the northern city of Thessaloniki, Greece, Saturday, Sept. 5, 2026. (AP Photo/Giannis Papanikos)
Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis delivers a speech during Thessaloniki's international trade fair, in the northern city of Thessaloniki, Greece, Saturday, Sept. 5, 2026. (AP Photo/Giannis Papanikos)
Farmes take part in a protest rally during Thessaloniki's international trade fair, in the northern city of Thessaloniki, Greece, Saturday, Sept. 5, 2026. (AP Photo/Giannis Papanikos)
Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis delivers a speech during Thessaloniki's international trade fair, in the northern city of Thessaloniki, Greece, Saturday, Sept. 5, 2026. (AP Photo/Giannis Papanikos)
He spoke at an annual speech on the state of the nation’s economy in the northern city of Thessaloniki, where more than 25,000 people took part in union-led protests, according to police estimates.
Labor unions and multiple protest groups staged rallies across the city, with farmers driving tractors into the downtown area. More than 3,000 police officers were on duty, closing streets and subway stations near the venue where the prime minister spoke.
Greece delivered a budget surplus and economic growth of 2.1% last year, while continuing to reduce its high public debt, but its workers had the lowest purchasing power in the European Union.
“Wages are low and prices are soaring, so affordability is the most serious problem,” said Yiannis Panagopoulos, head of Greece’s largest labor union, the GSEE.
The support measures, worth more than 2 billion euros ($2.3 billion) over the next year, include tax breaks for self-employed professionals, farmers and residents of villages, as well as salary and benefit increases for retirees and public sector workers.
Mitsotakis, the 58-year-old son of late conservative Prime Minister Constantine Mitsotakis, has served as prime minister since 2019, as Greece emerged from a major financial crisis.
He's seeking a third term in an election expected next April. But polls suggest that support for his center-right New Democracy party wouldn't give it a governing majority in parliament.
Saturday’s event was overshadowed by a fighter jet crash several hours earlier at an air show near Athens that killed two air force pilots.
Derek Gatopoulos reported from Athens.
Farmers take part in a protest rally during Thessaloniki's international trade fair, in the northern city of Thessaloniki, Greece, Saturday, Sept. 5, 2026. (AP Photo/Giannis Papanikos)
Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis delivers a speech during Thessaloniki's international trade fair, in the northern city of Thessaloniki, Greece, Saturday, Sept. 5, 2026. (AP Photo/Giannis Papanikos)
Farmes take part in a protest rally during Thessaloniki's international trade fair, in the northern city of Thessaloniki, Greece, Saturday, Sept. 5, 2026. (AP Photo/Giannis Papanikos)
Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis delivers a speech during Thessaloniki's international trade fair, in the northern city of Thessaloniki, Greece, Saturday, Sept. 5, 2026. (AP Photo/Giannis Papanikos)
JERUSALEM (AP) — The United States ambassador to Israel condemned Israeli settler violence in the occupied West Bank again on Saturday, calling the behavior an “act of terror" as he visited with Palestinian American residents shaken by months of attacks.
Ambassador Mike Huckabee referred to such settlers as “terrorists,” a word that U.S. officials usually reserve for Palestinian militants.
“If there are squatters that come in and put up their own flags and take possession of something that does not belong to them, if they burn a car, if they torch a mosque, if they go into someone’s home and vandalize it, paint graffiti on the walls, that’s a criminal act. But it extends beyond a criminal act. It’s an act of terror,” Huckabee said during his visit to the village of Turmus Ayya, which has reported frequent attacks by settlers over the past year.
Such attacks have surged since the war in Gaza began with the Hamas-led attack on southern Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, according to the United Nations humanitarian office.
Huckabee also used the term “terrorists” last month after weeks of unrest in the West Bank town of Qusra, where settlers surrounded several homes including one owned by a Palestinian American. Days later, residents of the West Bank village of Bazariya said settlers burned a mosque and left a message on a wall in graffiti reading “Huckabee regards from the terrorists" in Hebrew.
“I’m glad they admitted it,” the ambassador said Saturday of the incident, adding: “I don’t think that’s what they intended to do, but I do think that they represent a very tiny minority.”
A week ago, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu condemned the actions of a “handful of rioters,” and the foreign ministry called the settlers’ actions “a disgrace.”
Netanyahu’s government is the most ultranationalist and religious in Israel’s history. It has presided over a surge of settlement construction in the West Bank. Most of the international community views settlements as illegal.
On Saturday's visit to Turmus Ayya, the ambassador began his remarks by making clear he was addressing U.S. citizens, who make up a small percentage of the roughly 3 million Palestinians in the West Bank but a significant part of the village's population.
“I’m very aware that a lot of the American people who live in Turmus Ayya and other communities across this region are not enjoying the life they deserve to live, not enjoying it in a peaceful way,” Huckabee said. “It’s a life that is disturbed by people who have created extraordinary challenges that are unfair and illegal.”
The U.S. Embassy can't investigate criminal activity, he said, but it can tell its host government “there are needs that need to be addressed, there are issues that cannot go unnoticed, and specific crimes and acts of terror that cannot continue without that country doing the investigation and adjudication that every person has a right to expect.”
Huckabee met with about 10 Palestinian American residents who described the impact of the violence on their lives and properties, the municipality told The Associated Press.
Israel captured the West Bank, along with Gaza and east Jerusalem, in the 1967 Mideast war, territories the Palestinians want for a future state. The U.N. and much of the international community consider them to be illegally occupied.
Since then, the Israeli government has built nearly 150 settlements that are home to well over 500,000 Jewish settlers. Many settlements resemble developed suburbs.
Israel’s military operates in all parts of the West Bank, but rights groups have said the military frequently turns a blind eye to settler violence. The settlers are Israeli citizens, and Israel’s defense minister recently announced plans to fully transfer law enforcement among settlers to the Israeli police.
Palestinians check the damage to a mosque that, according to residents, was burned during an attack by Israeli settlers, in the West Bank village of Bazariya, Tuesday, Sept. 1, 2026, as on its wall a Hebrew graffiti reads "Huckabee regards from the terrorists", referring to the U.S. Ambassador to Israel, Mike Huckabee. (AP Photo/Majdi Mohammed)
