Greek elections: New Democracy looking for solutions to the conundrum of the North

With the electoral dilemma “forwards or backwards”, with the admission that the west of Thessaloniki has not always had “the necessary attention from the state” but also with the… mute but deep concern of the New Democracy party  about dangers from its right in its areas Macedonia, Kyriakos Mitsotakis was found in Western Thessaloniki.

The North is a separate axis of pre-election planning, as leaks are recorded primarily to the right, with the government and the party cadres having set in motion the entire New Democracy apparatus for months.

Two rallies

After the withdrawal of former Prime Minister Kostas Karamanlis from the ballots, Mitsotakis turned to Thessaloniki first district to complete the districts in which he will be a candidate (in addition to West Athens and Evros, as party leaders can register in more than one constituency), while the post-election balances will determine whether the Prime Minister will keep the seat there, leaving Athens second district after almost two decades. The information indicates that in the week leading up to the ballot box on May 21, two central pre-election speeches – gatherings are planned, first in Thessaloniki and then in Athens, with the prime minister’s planning definitely including another visit to the headquarters of Central Macedonia after the announcement of the elections .

“Decades of failure are not fixed overnight. What I can guarantee you is that we will continue with determination to strive for the best”, said Mitsotakis, visiting three former camps that will be used for the new cancer hospital of Thessaloniki (“Karatassiou” camp), social housing (“Ziaka “) and metropolitan park (“Pavlou Mela”), while from the square of Evosmos he invited the citizens to compare two four-year periods, talking again about “critical elections”.

The “single” ballot box

Mitsotakis is now moving clearly with a strategy of the first – “one”, as he says – ballot box, expecting a maximum rally of right-wing voters, so that on May 21 he can keep the “factionalists” disappointed by the government away from either abstention or a right-wing protest vote againstNew Democracy. Moreover, polls “warn” about the dynamics recorded in northern areas by the Greek Solution of Kyriakos Velopoulos and other smaller right-wing formations, with the New Democracy declared goal of self-reliance in an environment of reinforced proportional representation not to allow losses from the party base, but to preserve the traditional base and an enlargement towards the center. Especially Thessaloniki’s first district is anything but considered a “bastion”, as in 2019 the ND achieved a lead over SYRIZA (which won half of the municipalities, however) with a lower percentage than its national average. At the same time, Hellenic Solution (5.39% versus 3.70%), MeRA25 (4.76% versus 3.44%) and Golden Dawn (3.92% versus 2.93%) recorded better performances than the nationwide percentages .

Emphasis on infrastructure

To this day, the government systematically puts the burden on highlighting the infrastructure projects it has delivered or will proceed with in Thessaloniki and which Mitsotakis referred to again. “Some were taking pictures in front of tarpaulins and fake ticket stalls. The metro of Thessaloniki will be operational in 2024”, he said, characterizing the expansion of the metro to the west as a project of the next administration. However, given the election slogan for better incomes, he emphasized the commitments for wages. “On January 1, 2024, there will be a new salary scale for the State as a whole. We can’t have a huge earnings gap between research done in a public center and what someone would earn if they went out into the open market,” he commented.