Greek Elections 2023: Self-reliance or third elections

New Democracy sees the assertion of a “safe” and not marginal self-reliance as the only way, with Kyriakos Mitsotakis now directly charging his political opponents for any… electoral misadventures. Through public broadcaster ERT last night, the president of New Democracy let loose barbs on the one hand at Alexis Tsipras for his “whimsy”, as he said, with the simple proportional voting system of leading the country to the second elections on June 25, on the other hand at Nikos Androulakis for ” closed door” to any possibility of cooperation which, according to him, threatens with a third… August ballot if self-reliance does not emerge.

New Democracy, therefore places the dilemma of self-reliance or third elections in the foreground and therefore the fear of a new confrontation in August. Mitsotakis’ aside to the fact that “legally there is no other scenario” is typical. Besides, he insists on categorically rejecting scenarios of either collusion with parties to the right of the ND or “grabbing” individual MPs from other parties, in the event that he reached the source of marginal self-reliance but not managed to form a government with 148-149 MPs.

“We did not close the door on PASOK”, noted Mitsotakis, “PASOK comes and says that ‘even if you have 149 MPs, it is impossible for me to cooperate, because I really want to be in the opposition, that is, I renounce the responsibility to participate in the governance of the country.”

“Not even one vote less”

It is clear that all blue forces (and tactics) fall into the “not one vote less” operation at the ballot box on June 25 with an emphatic two-front against SYRIZA and PASOK. New Democracy aims to bring back to the polls all those who supported it on May 21, presenting its own demand for a “strong mandate” for “stable governance” as the only realistic choice in the face of SYRIZA’s goal of “overturning the correlations” and of PASOK – according to Mitsotakis – “to claim primacy in the center-left”.

From there he also openly says that he is aiming for a “strong parliamentary majority”, that is, exorcising a precarious autonomy of 151-153 MPs, considering that he is mobilizing voter pools at the same time in the centrist and the right-wing audience. And in the attempt to counter the arguments of SYRIZA and PASOK about blue “unchecked omnipotence” he insists on connecting the need for a “stable government” both with the positive outlook for the Greek economy and with the smooth implementation of reforms.

Seven-party Parliament

“We are asking for strong self-reliance, for a stable government that can implement the big changes (…) If we don’t want to get involved in adventures, we must have a stable government that can be sworn in on June 26. We are quite late,” he characteristically said. In this context, on the one hand, it has become a permanent slogan of New Democracy that in the elections “we vote for the government and not for the opposition”, on the other hand, party cadres and Mitsotakis personally constantly bring to the fore the possible scenario of a seven-party Parliament.

“This means that the bar of self-reliance is being raised. That we don’t have endless room for maneuver, nor can anyone consider that self-reliance is a given, as some people might,” noted Mitsotakis, testifying that the biggest fear of the blue camp is the complacency of the citizens about the criticality of the upcoming confrontation.

“United in their love…”

PASOK is already in the crosshairs of New Democracy mainly as a party with “terrible shallowness” in its speech, according to the recent words of the president of the ND, or with positions that are identical to those of SYRIZA, according to the accusation of the ND. “PASOK and SYRIZA are united in their love for some taxes” according to Mitsotakis.

It is clear that the New Democracy will increasingly turn its arrows towards PASOK, given the party’s attempt to repatriate voters, stealing power from both New Democracy and SYRIZA. And at the same time, New Democracy does not want to see voters who supported it on May 21 discount the election result by now turning their gaze to shaping the center-left landscape.