In an interview that was deeply personal yet also conveyed political messages, Greece’s Deputy Minister to the Prime Minister, George Mylonakis, spoke for the first time since his serious health scare. Among other things, he stated that “I will draw a curtain on vulgarity.”

In a two-page interview in *Kathimerini*, both Giorgos Mylonakis and his wife, journalist Tina Messaropoulou, spoke about many issues they’ve faced, including, of course, the day he collapsed inside the Maximos Mansion: “I have a vivid image of my collapse. The commotion in the room and among the people. The heads above my own. Their anxiety,” the Deputy Minister said, among other things, and spoke gratefully of his family: “My wife and children stood by me like rocks,” he noted.

Meanwhile, as Tina Messaropoulou points out, “even in the darkest hours, I never believed that anything bad would happen to him, not even during the 26 days he was in a coma.”

Regarding the “smear campaign” by media outlets in Athens and Nicosia, which portrayed him as implicated in a pedophilia case, G. Mylonakis said: “I was used to it, but what happened crossed every line. Imagine that they fabricated alleged messages from my cell phone and my voice. Unfortunately, these days, there’s a bottomless well of malice.”

“The country has a problem when public discourse and politics are like communicating vessels filled with so much poison. As for the Cyprus case, I went all the way to the prosecutor; I did everything I was supposed to do. But this situation in our homeland is not normal; it must change,” he pointed out.

He added that “I will draw a line” against vulgarity—that is, he won’t let it get to him; he will set certain boundaries.

A large part of the interview concerns his collaboration with the Prime Minister of Greece, Kyriakos Mitsotakis—specifically, how they met when the latter was Minister of Administrative Reform: “Back then, I deeply believed that if there was one person who could change the situation, it was him. He had a complete understanding of what was happening and a vision for how to stop it. And ever since then, I have stood unwaveringly by his side,” she said.

And then, “My sense of duty has armed me with strength and determination. As a person, I care about doing the right thing. And if I’m clear about it in my own mind, I don’t care what others say. So I’m working for my country, and by extension, for Mitsotakis,” he said.