PM Mitsotakis at inauguration of residence donated by Patrick and Joan Leigh Fermor to Benaki Museum

"I am pleased to see that foundations and privates' initiatives in the sector of culture and historic memory multiplying. Today we had the house of Patrick and Joan Leigh Fermor. My government will support every such action" he said. "We believe in a culture, vehicle of a double growth, economic when it combines with our history and our culture but also social when it builds sophisticated people, namely real citizens".

Speaking of Patrick Leigh Fermor, Mitsotakis underlined that "all Greeks owe to Patrick Leigh Fermor, but I as a Cretan, feel I owe more because Paddy, as his friends called him, during the Nazi occupation and for two years was "Mihalis" and was the link between the allies with the Greek resistance on Crete and of course the coordinator of the iconic operation in the history of WWII, of the abduction of German general Heinrich Kreipe".

The prime minister said that "Patrick Leigh Fermor's wish became reality with the support of Museum Benaki and of Stavros Niarchos Foundation and the cooperation of the children of Tzannis Tzannetakis who was the supervisor of the donation".