Party leaders playing their final hand

With 10 days to go before the election campaigning is over, the main parties, ruling New Democracy and opposition SYRIZA, are entering the final stretch targeting specific groups of the electorate and areas in the country.

Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis is focusing his attention on a positive narrative regarding his government’s contributions and future benefits, with an emphasis on young people and pensioners. Campaign ads will stress what the ruling conservatives intend to do in the new four-year term. The motto underpinning the message is that elections are won “not only by what you have done, but mainly by the vision of what you intend to do.”

Regarding the confrontation with SYRIZA, Mitsotakis will talk more about the structural political differences with his rival, “without getting into a toxic confrontation,” according to associates, wanting to crystallize his party’s positions and not to get into a mud-slinging match, which is what the vast majority of citizens want.

Apart from the young, for whom Mitsotakis has reserved another provision just before the polls, giving the so-called youth pass, he will also target the middle and working classes in a coordinated manner. “There is a comparative advantage over SYRIZA in these audiences,” a government source told Kathimerini, recalling that the PM cut more taxes than he announced before the 2019 elections. The government is also focusing a lot on pensioners, a very large audience, with PM comparing SYRIZA’s policy, when in government, with that of his own government.

For its part, main opposition SYRIZA is turning its gaze now to the center, with its leader Alexis Tsipras making constant references to former prime minister Andreas Papandreou, with many critics accusing him of trying to appropriate the legacy of the founder and leader of PASOK, which dominated Greek politics throughout the 80s through to the 2000s. 

Tsipras also has a clear strategy directed at younger age groups as well as the middle class whom he addresses in every speech.

The cities remaining for Tsipras to visit are now few and far between. He has already found himself in the “gray zones,” where he wants to strengthen his quotas, but also in SYRIZA-dominant areas where he wants to increase his forces. From now until the elections he will tour blue areas as well to try and feed off discontent with ND.