The Prime Minister chuckled a little when he heard the name of the next interrogator for his first PMQ. It wasn't often that he so vividly memorised the name of a first term ME, or remember so fondly his first experience, at a meeting for the joint space programme two years ago. Vangelis was the Interior Minister at the time and had to attend, given the domestic effects of the programme, and Michalis attended due to his own sharp interest in the programme and all things space related.
Space exploration wasn't something anyone wanted to publicly call into question, after all, it wasn't exactly a priority for any administration and mostly exists for the publicity regardless of the real and massive economic benefits, but the two Members of the Ekklesia were still invested in the programme as a real force for change. Vangelis didn't know Michalis personally and couldn't spare enough time for it, but his own reason for believing space was the future was searing enough for most and incredibly central for him personally. He thought back to the deciding moment that he would focus on space much more than his fellow MEs would.
During the last war with Kalos, in the late 50s and early 60s, one of the soldiers that the Prime Minister worked with was a drafted physics student just out of college. The student was hesitant to fight, as any one would when they are drafted against their secret hopes, and Vangelis wasn't easy with him either as the direct commanding officer. Battles were fought and casualties were taken, but the student and future PM were mostly unharmed throughout, with Vangelis intently listening to the science that his inferior had been studying before the war started and the student learning of the ways to be the best soldier possible until the damned war was over.
However, the Battle over Kalosia was where they would speak for the last time, as the student had died by a grenade that would have killed his entire squadron, commanding officer included. Vangelis saw him die in a bloody explosion, at the hands of a foe so incredibly fierce in their fighting that the body could not have had a shot at being recovered until after the battle, and indeed the campaign, was over. The memory was seared into his mind and never made him lose sight of the beauty of science introduced to him by that student of physics, and led to him supporting an expanded space program continuously since he took office decades ago.
Bringing himself back to the present from both of these extended flashbacks, the Prime Minister stood up and began to give his response to the ME from Byzantium.
"To the honourable friend from Byzantium, this government, and indeed, this Prime Minister, has every plan to continue and expand the joint space programme with our allies in the Artemian Union and additional cooperation outside of it in the realm of peaceful space exploration and climate research. Not only should we focus on space with a greater zeal than our predecessors for its economic and scientific benefits, we must do it for the prestige of being able to rise above the politics of this planet and exploring the places never touched by humans before in the grand search for a power greater than us and a planet to hold the future of the species. This government will put forth a resolution in the coming days to advance this goal, in addition to the official appointment of a new Space Minister. We will not back down from this."