K. Mitsotakis: The wall in populism, the dilemmas of the next ballot box, the autonomy and the ‘no’ in the loose vote

Of Dimitris Gatsiou

Three working days. With an account of the government project, accompanied by the messages for its continuous communication to the citizens. Looking to the next day, through the emergence of the social and progressive “blue” profile.

With the Prime Minister, in two speeches lasting almost two hours, laying the political carpet of the next twelve months, insisting, with emphasis, that the polls will be set at the end of the four years.

With the completion of the 14th Congress of New Democracy, which moved in tones of unification, in tones of mobilization, in tones of counterattack on all fronts, the papers were laid on a long pre-election table, during which the government and Piraeus Street will be in continuous battle position.

And what became clear is that Mr. Mitsotakis will walk politically in the period remaining until the first elections, determined not to leave any room for the distortion of the government’s strategies and actions.

He will walk politically, building a wall on populism. He will walk politically, having in the first line the meaning of the continuous enlargement of the party. It will walk politically, highlighting, at every opportunity, the dilemmas on which the citizens will be called to decide.

He will walk politically, aiming at autonomy and having the comparison in the frame. Personal comparison between him and the president of SYRIZA. Executive comparison. Comparison of policies, ideas. Comparison of projects. And through these comparisons, political stakes also come to the fore. Progress or maintenance. Stability or adventure.

Fixation or creation. Somehow, New Democracy’s strategies will focus on both its “core” and the Center. Because, as the Prime Minister stressed (in his interview with Vima), the elections are won by the Center. Somehow, the strategies of the New Democracy… sound… in the loose vote of the first elections, which will be held by simple proportional representation.

Because, as Mr. Mitsotakis pointed out, inviting the society to a dynamic presence in the first ballot boxes, these will be the stepping stone for the final victory. Autonomy. “Independent Greece”, as he mentioned in yesterday, but also in Friday’s speech.

“We have always supported an autonomous Greece. However, given the entrenchment of other political forces, this perspective now refers objectively only to the autonomous New Democracy.

Otherwise there is a risk that the helm of the country will remain meteoric, the course will change at any moment, party blackmail will become the rule and useful options will circulate, lost in offices and corridors. To be discussed, rather than realized. And to rule out this nightmare, we must face the first ballot box.

The ballot box of the simple analog at the end of the four years until the final ballot box. Because she is ultimately the one who will judge the correlations which will be validated later and more dynamically in the second ballot box.

“The stepping stone to a victorious finish line” was the typical prime ministerial disgust, which was applauded by delegates and observers in the central hall of the 14th Congress.

In the frame, Al. Tsipras

With the “blue appointment” marking the informal start of the pre-election period, what does not go unnoticed is the fact that Mr. Mitsotakis personally put Alexis Tsipras in the δρο frame, showing that nothing will remain unanswered in this twelve-month course.

What does not go unnoticed is the… political war he declared on populism, on the distortion of positions and strategies. What does not go unnoticed is that the New Democracy will, from now on, constantly cause the comparison with… the projects and the days of SYRIZA in the governance of the country, in order to demonstrate what, government and party executives, characterize a gap of logic and policy for the next day of the country.

SYRIZA has shown its dispositions. And if its attitude towards the pandemic was characterized by “health sabotage”, its tactics today could easily be called “social sabotage”. Our opponents are, of course, looking for their own “party” kiss of life in the artificial respiration of demagogy.

However, it is true that in a climate of economic hardship, this tactic becomes doubly dangerous. Inexpensive promises sound good. But they imprison minds. And then false expectations are born. The beautiful words burn beautifully and the populists immediately forget what they were throwing, leaving the citizens alone to live under the ruins brought by the lies.

It is something we lived, we paid for, it taught us a lot. We must never forget it. We must never experience it again… For a moment think of Mrs. Christodoulopoulou in Evros. Think for a moment about Mr. Polakis in the pandemic. Think for a moment about Mr. Varoufakis in the economy.

Think a little about the Kotzia-Kammenou duo in our national issues. “Because this will ultimately be the image of the comparison in the next confrontation”, the prime minister noted, in his speech yesterday.