Outright majority for ND in June, as civil war erupts in center-left

New Democracy’s triumph is a given. No matter what happens in June’s election – whether the governing party’s share goes even higher, or goes down if certain PASOK-leaning voters return to their natural “home” after supporting the center-right last Sunday as they were concerned about SYRIZA returning to power – New Democracy will form a single-party government.

Likewise, if the number of parties that make it into Parliament stays at last Sunday’s five or goes up to six or even seven, the country will have a government headed by Kyriakos Mitsotakis.

The policies it pursues and the people who will implement them is the next question and an important challenge for New Democracy’s second term in power.

There will be no infighting – and what there was will be silenced after Sunday’s triumph – and the center-right will be able to move, as a united front, in the governance of Greece, which can – and should for the good of the country – be a success.

The same positive prognosis cannot be said for the center-left, where a great battle is about to erupt. There’s the reborn PASOK on the one hand, which is looking forward to making a comeback as an influential political force with the immediate goal of further strengthening its share on June 25, potentially becoming the main opposition party.

On the other hand, the badly injured SYRIZA will regroup and this will perforce entail a heavily critical stance toward PASOK, which the former blames in part for its demise by saying that instead of attacking the right, the socialists aimed their fire at SYRIZA. The observation, which is partly true, is not surprising given that both parties are fishing from the same pool for votes.

This also explains PASOK’s immediate response to the above criticism by saying that SYRIZA’s brand of opposition is the reason why ND actually saw its popularity skyrocket instead of drop: “You will go down in the memory of progressive citizens as the person who gave the Kyriakos Mitsotakis government the kiss of life,” PASOK said in a statement, referring to opposition head Alexis Tsipras.

“Our responsibility in the next election will be to prevent the prospect of an uncontrollable, hegemonic prime minister,” Tsipras said on Monday. PASOK’s Nikos Androulakis says the same thing.

Which of the two will convince voters that he is the most capable to accomplish this will be the bet for the center-left – and the dilemma for many voters – during the next few weeks and on election day in June.