Mitsotakis goes on the campaign trail
PM tells voters that next year’s elections are about staying on path to prosperity or regressing
Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis Thursday resumed traveling to Greece’s regions, in what is essentially, but not yet officially, pre-election barnstorming.
Even though the present conservative government’s term expires in July next year, it is widely assumed that the first of what are expected to be two polls will take place somewhere between April and late May.
The electoral law voted by the previous government precludes any party gaining a majority and, as a governing coalition is seen as extremely unlikely, the new Parliament will be dissolved shortly after convening and a new election called, this time under an electoral law voted by the present government, which provides for a 30-seat bonus to the winner, making an overall single-party majority possible, but not assured.
An interim government will be in place for the roughly 30-day period between dissolution and a new election.
Mitsotakis returned to northern Greece, seen as his party base yet one where he might conceivably lose votes to smaller parties on the hard right.
“The most important dilemma” of next year’s polls “is whether we will move forward or backward and who the Greeks want to govern,” the prime minister said. “I’m certain they will support us again and will trust us… to continue on the path to a strong and thriving Greece or… go back to a not-so-distant past,” Mitsotakis added, alluding to the period of the leftist-led SYRIZA government, from January 2015 to July 2019.
The prime minister claimed that the government had made good on its promises, notably to lessen the tax burden and make the state bureaucracy more responsive.
Mitsotakis also mentioned the surveillance affair, once again accusing the opposition of trying to drag the country into the mud.
The affair, which began with revelations that the mobile phone of socialist leader Nikos Androulakis was infected with spyware – revelations which led the director of the National Intelligence Agency and a close aide to Mitsotakis to resign – took another twist last Sunday when a pro-opposition newspaper published a list of 33 names, which included government ministers, among other, allegedly spied upon on Mitsotakis’ orders. The government has denounced the story as false.
