The day after the elections and above all the question of what government can emerge from the ballot box is something Kyriakos Mitsotakis continues to place high on the agenda of political dialogue. He did so also in his first interview after the TIF (on ERT), against the backdrop of an international environment that he himself described as “particularly unstable” and “uncharted,” emphatically bringing back the message of the need for stable governance.As he conveyed, the discussion concerns not only which party will come first, but mainly whether the country will have a government the day after the elections. He also argued that this may seem self-evident, but it is not guaranteed, if today’s party correlations and the public positions of the opposition parties are taken into account.
In this context, Mr. Mitsotakis presented a self-reliant ND as the only, in his view, realistic governing proposal that exists today in the political field. His argument is based mainly on the assessment that the other parties have ruled out cooperation with New Democracy, while they have not submitted, as he said, a structured alternative proposal that can clearly lead to a government.
The prime minister rejected the criticism about a “blackmailing dilemma” and turned it into an issue of political reality. “It is not blackmailing, it is a reality,” he said characteristically, while also pointing out that ND should fight its battle with “modesty.” He did, however, recall that in the elections of 2019 and 2023 the polls underestimated ND’s final electoral percentage, which ultimately secured self-reliance in both contests.
This logic includes the revival of the dilemma that has been repeatedly formulated: “hope or adventures.” Kyriakos Mitsotakis is now trying to define it more as a governance dilemma and less as a simple confrontation between parties. A stable government, according to his reasoning, acquires greater importance in a period of international geopolitical and economic upheavals, where quick decisions and continuity in the management of national issues are required.
Post-election collaborations
Particular weight, moreover, was given to the issue of post-election collaborations. He recalled that it is the Greek people who will determine the next government with their vote and that the Constitution provides for specific procedures, but on the other hand, he stressed that the current positions of the parties significantly limit the available scenarios.
Especially regarding PASOK, he referred to the decisions of its congress, by which cooperation with ND has been ruled out, while regarding the parties of Kyriakos Velopoulos and Afroditi Latinopoulou he made clear once again that there is no possibility of cooperation.
ND is attempting to shift the political discussion to the issue of governability and the risk that no clear governing solution will emerge from the ballot box.
This message came on the same day that two new polls, by Marc (ANT1) and MRB (OPEN), recorded in general terms the same picture that is also reflected in the other surveys after the TIF. Marc gives ND 31% in vote estimation, compared with 16% for EL.A.S. and 11.5% for PASOK, while MRB records 29%, 17.4% and 12.4% respectively.
Of particular interest, however, is that the same measurements do not reflect a society that has already formed a definitive governing choice. In Marc, 27.8% state that they prefer a self-reliant ND government, while 27.1% favor cooperation among PASOK, EL.A.S. and smaller left-wing parties. Only 9.6% choose an ND - PASOK coalition government.
At the same time, MRB records a high undecided vote, at 18%, a finding that demonstrates the fluidity of today’s political reality.
At the level of evaluating the TIF measures, MRB records that 30% consider the government interventions effective, while Marc records a positive or rather positive assessment of the prime minister’s announcements from 38.4% of respondents.