Small parties waging battle on ND’s right
Given that the final victor of the June 25 elections appears to be a foregone conclusion, the key stake for conservative New Democracy next week hinges on the percentage of the vote it will get and the achievement of an outright majority, which would exceed the 156 minimum number of seats in Parliament.
The qualitative elements of the surveys reveal that the terrain on the left of ND is almost set, and there can be no major shocks, with Zoe Konstantopoulou’s Sailing for Freedom party appearing to be the new player on the left.
In contrast, the situation to ND’s right is entirely fluid, with at least four groups battling for a piece of the pie and creating a direct impact on the overall result.
Indicatively, according to an article published Thursday by the Fos Fanariou website, the president of the Niki party, Dimitris Natsios, was allegedly a witness against the ecumenical patriarch after a priest filed a lawsuit against him at the Holy Synod in 2017. The article essentially concludes that the Niki party chairman is rallying the “apostates and anti-patriarchs” rather than the “traditional Church,” thus bringing to the surface the underground debates over the division of the Church’s votes in the right wing.
Beyond that, there are intense disputes among the other three parties on the right of the ND as well. The Greek Solution party, which is the only right-wing parliamentary party, has recently appeared particularly squeezed, as Niki’s power also derives from northern Greece. In addition, there is the Patriotic Union party, which on Thursday declared that it does not agree with the declaration of a period of national mourning by the caretaker government over the deadly migrant shipwreck.
Finally, the Spartans party, founded in 2017, received publicity in the last few days, after a tweet by jailed former Golden Dawn official Ilias Kasidiaris called on his followers to support it in the upcoming elections.
