Greek Elections 2023: Mitsotakis on road trip to northern Greece

This week alone, five regions of Northern Greece are targeted by the leader of New Democracy – Dendias, Voridis, Dora Bakoyannis and other leaders of the faction undertake special missions in Macedonia and Thrace against the forces of Hellenic Solution and Niki

After Alexis Tsipras, who is heading north today (Thessaloniki, Pieria), seeking reversals in favor of his own faction, Kyriakos Mitsotakis takes his turn immediately, who has every reason to aim… more at Macedonia and Thrace. With an eye on trends and processes towards the right of New Democracy and in particular on the prospects of the Hellenic Solution of Kyriakos Velopoulos on the one hand and Niki of Dimitris Natsios on the other, Mitsotakis targets five regions of Northern Greece in the current week alone.

To be precise, he is planning a new road trip (as he did at the premiere of the pre-election period in Crete) for next Saturday, when he will cover central points in Pieria, Pella and Imathia. Two other regions, Thassos and Drama, are on Mitsotakis’ schedule for tomorrow.

It is possible that New Democracy achieved the first place in the specific regions, however, based on the electoral data of the simple proportional ballot box, the percentages of the center-right faction “raise” an improvement as small or larger losses were recorded since 2019. And in addition, enhanced percentages were recorded with an open perspective for further strengthening of the parties to the right of the ND space.

Evros and Thessaloniki

Unlike Tsipras, who chose changes in the districts in which he will be a candidate, Mitsotakis keeps both his candidacies in the North – Thessaloniki A, where the SYRIZA leader is touring today, and Evros. In Thessaloniki New Democracy won the bet of victory but lost at least 5,500 votes from the 2019 elections with Hellenic Solution emerging as the third party winning an additional 11,341 votes from 2019. In the same constituency smaller parties such as Niki achieved percentages much above their national average.

Correspondingly in Evros, where Kyriakos Velopoulos achieved one of his highest percentages with 8.72%, it is estimated that the losses for New Democracy were effectively stopped by the candidacy of Mitsotakis. He himself will move to the constituency probably in the last week before the June 25 poll. And the special missions of other executives will precede: Nikos Dendias and Nikos Panagiotopoulos are expected to head to Evros next week in order to convey the “patriotic” message of New Democracy.

The “fortresses” of Niki and Rhodopi

Accordingly, a dynamic campaign is being prepared for the … strongholds of Niki, Pieria and Kilkis, where the party achieved its highest percentages. Among others, Makis Voridis will be in the front line.

After all, the former Minister of the Interior already in public interventions transfers his positions, charging, for example, Niki with a “game of symbols” without a clear programmatic rhetoric. In any case, the goal of New Democracy is to address those who “look” towards Niki with messages about “responsible patriotism in practice” and the need to elect an independent government on June 25.

At the same time, Rodopi, the only district won by SYRIZA on May 21, functions as a special axis in the targeted presence of the ND in the North. Mitsotakis will visit the region before the elections, while other officials with a base in the region and knowledge of its specificities will go first.

Among them are Dora Bakoyannis, Dimitris Avramopoulos and Tasos Chatzivasiliou – all of them in direct contact with New Democracy candidate Evripides Stylianidis. The blue faction has chosen to highlight at a central level the issue of the election of Ozgur Ferhat by SYRIZA as the choice of the Turkish consulate in Komotini. Ferhat was the person who overtook the former Rodopi SYRIZA MP Takis Haritou.

“Far-right ploys”

“It is not possible for a foreign country to intervene openly in favor of specific candidates who are referred to the Turkish consulate and not to the Greek constitutional legal order,” Mitsotakis said directly (to protothema.gr) and ND representative Akis Skertsos made the references to “candidates” more specific, putting both Ferhat and Hussein Zeibek in the frame in Xanthi. And while New Democracy complains about “serious questions” about the criteria by which SYRIZA “serves the common foreign policy and defense against Turkish revisionism, SYRIZA loudly accuses New Democracy of playing dangerous games at the expense of the Muslim minority.

SYRIZA does not intend to leave the points of the New Democracy unanswered, on the contrary it accuses it of hypocrisy and of “extreme right-wing games” regarding Thrace, underlining the need for democratic reforms in the face of Turkish influence. “It is clear the hypocrisy of a faction, whose officials provided meals, had meetings and pre-election photos with the Consul of Turkey and the pseudo-mufti. The only compass of the SYRIZA-PS MPs is the Constitution of Greece,” the party announced.