Why did K. Mitsotakis “burn” the discussions on restructuring – Planning

By Dimitris Gatsiou

“I have told you, but you do not listen to me. There will be no election and no reshuffle. Go on vacation comfortably. We have nine months until the election. What reshuffle? Does anyone not have time to learn his portfolio. Also, there are many binding obligations for the Recovery Fund”.

Having completed a long cycle of tours in the region, with stops such as Komotini, Preveza and Igoumenitsa, the prime minister on the day of the reception for the restoration of the Republic, in the garden of the Presidential Palace, closed every… crack in the scenario for an early appeal to national elections or reshuffle. With ministers already given clear directions to speed up sector-by-sector reforms, the Maximos Palace enters its fourth year in office, with the first major milestone on the horizon. And this is related to the two-day presence of Mr. Mitsotakis at the International Exhibition of Thessaloniki, the strategic aspects of which will begin to take on… flesh and blood right after the three-day event on the 15th of August. Beyond TEF, the next big bets have been placed on the agenda. After the bet that was won and related to the exit of the country from the regime of enhanced supervision, it is the turn to obtain investment grade within the first months of 2023. The attraction of new investments, the creation of jobs, the support of households and businesses in the face of successive crises, but also the absorption of available resources from the Recovery Fund are at the forefront of planning, with the government having a useful political time of at least nine months in front of it to promote the next steps of its project.

“No” to changes

The prime minister’s choice to… burn the discussions about changes in the government structure (which the truth is that they had intensified mainly after his clear position on the completion of the four-year term) is related, to a large extent, to what he mentioned in the discussion with journalists at the Presidential Palace. And the key phrase is time frame.

In a possible… shuffling of the deck, the new ministers and deputy ministers would need at least two to three months in order to be informed about all the issues in their portfolio. And this would, in any case, put barriers in project production. In addition to the above, the changes, a few months before the apparently double polls of 2023, would cause turmoil within the ruling party, at a time of multiple internal and external challenges, which requires the maximum possible coordination and maximum possible rally. With this decision, therefore, the prime minister keeps the government machines at full speed and sends a strong signal of continuation of the reform strategy on the way to the election.

The… open window

“We are focused on the completion of our work. We are in the fourth year of our term, we have to face many difficulties for the whole society, we have a dense agenda and the mandate of the prime minister is to keep our eyes on the implementation of government commitments”, commented officials . First fact: Mitsotakis’ moves so far in the… puzzle of changes in the government structure have clearly shown that the prime minister is not of the logic of major interventions, as the core group remains the same. Second fact: In these three years of the “blue” government, it has become clear to everyone that any decisions regarding the image of the ministerial body have in their… DNA the logic of corrections in areas where delays are observed. So can one rule out yet another round of targeted interventions in the near future? The answer, according to factors, is “no.”

The “political marathon”

Of particular interest, however, is another aversion of the prime minister, in the context of the discussion he had with journalists at the reception for the restoration of the Republic.

“We will continue our tours. It will be seen who has the best political fitness. Who can withstand the political marathon,” he noted. The choice of Mr. Mitsotakis to… step on the gas for nine months, in order for the government to reach the national ballot box with the maximum project output, is obvious. Equally obvious is his intention to cancel consecutive rounds of tours in Attica and the surrounding area, with the aim of contacting the citizens, but also communicating the reform agenda to date. In this context, new prime ministerial visits are in the works (Mr. Mitsotakis will be, according to information, on Tuesday in Kefalonia), with the tempo picking up after the 15th of August, as the two-day period approaches International Exhibition, but also immediately after… the political-economic appointment of Thessaloniki.

At the same time, “blue” executives put the movements of the president of PASOK under their microscope, commenting that Mr. Androulakis has decided to become a “monitor of SYRIZA”, despite the fact that the government’s policy finds a high response even to voters of Harilaou Trikoupi.

“There are characteristic incidents that confirm this choice of Mr. Androulakis. Such as his apparent refusal to consent to the selection of Mrs. Christofilopoulos as head of the Independent Authority for the Protection of Personal Data. Such as the unusually high tones used by PASOK in its criticism of the fires , culminating in the posting of the person in charge of the Environment sector. Such as the attitude towards Mr. Tsipras’s proposal for the Recovery Fund. All this shows that the common denominator of the politics of SYRIZA and Mr. Androulakis is that they have no substantial opposition criticism or input solutions that are applicable, real, but also realistic within this backdrop of crises… We continue our policy and believe in the need for stable and self-reliant governments”, comment executives, with an eye on political instability at the European level, which has as the last example the crisis in Italy.