New Democracy’s pre-election agenda was outlined by Kyriakos Mitsotakis during his speech at the ND Political Committee meeting, even though theoretically the polls will be held in about ten months from today.
“We are, however, let’s not fool ourselves anymore, in the final stretch. Every day counts. We will all return together to tour all of Greece from one end to the other,” said Mitsotakis, giving the signal for a long pre-election campaign that essentially starts today from Thessaloniki. He also announced that there will soon be new announcements regarding the staffing of the “blue” ballot papers. The ruling party elected 39-year-old Konstantinos Kyranakis as its new secretary, and the prime minister, as they emphasize from Maximos Mansion, opened the horizon for the next critical period.
Kyriakos Mitsotakis: “Agenda 2030” and ND’s new contract with society
Kyriakos Mitsotakis set the framework within which ND will operate, giving party officials the material about government initiatives so they can fight the battle until the 2027 national elections. At the same time, as they point out from Maximos, he set the goals for ND’s third term, with the main focus, as he revealed, being support for citizens’ and households’ income. He announced a package of realistic commitments to be drafted by a special committee titled “Agenda 2030,” which will constitute a new “Responsibility Contract” with society. Through his speech to the Political Committee, as they emphasize, Kyriakos Mitsotakis defined the party ideologically, organizationally and ethically against the other parties while setting the dilemmas for election Sunday, declaring the strategy of one ballot box and self-sufficiency for ND.
Mitsotakis’s messages to Karamanlis and Samaras from the Political Committee podium
While the two former prime ministers and former party presidents, Kostas Karamanlis and Antonis Samaras (who was expelled a year and a half ago), are exercising harsh criticism of government policies and the party’s direction (mainly the latter), Kyriakos Mitsotakis decided to respond indirectly but with specific references and barbs. “This composition of our Political Committee represents every period of our history and also expresses every current that shaped it through time,” he noted about the demographics of the top party body, while adding meaningfully: “We thus send a crystal-clear message today: New Democracy never loses either its soul or its stride. A mission that unites Greeks in the broad front of collective progress and individual advancement, proving our patriotic and popular character, not with easy slogans from the safety of the couch, but with difficult actions in the field.”
Subsequently, Kyriakos Mitsotakis indirectly left another serious barb about the Karamanlis and Samaras administrations, this time regarding the exploitation of the country’s undersea mineral wealth. “We are the ones who made energy policy a meeting point of economy, defense and diplomacy. After 40-plus years, after the era of Constantine Karamanlis, our homeland is exploiting its undersea deposits with the seal of global energy giants,” he noted. Attempting to deconstruct criticism leveled at the ND government on national issues, he “pointed to” critics as those who “drown themselves in calm waters,” forgetting that “we always keep these calm waters free and blue, with actions and not with slogans,” as he noted.
Income and household support at the center of Mitsotakis’s strategy
The prime minister also set the framework of ND’s pre-election rhetoric on the road to claiming a third term, emphasizing that citizens’ pockets and household budgets will be a top priority of our new cycle toward 2030. “The progress of macroeconomic numbers must translate into even more tangible benefit for everyone, with the country’s development increasingly entailing individual prosperity and visible improvement of daily life,” he emphasized, while telling party officials that “this rapid development and rapid support of disposable income must also be the central targeting of our pre-election program for New Democracy’s third term. With a package of realistic commitments, ‘Agenda 2030,’ which will be drafted by all of us under the responsibility of a special committee, coordinated by Deputy Prime Minister Kostis Hatzidakis. A new responsibility contract with society that we will be called to honor, as we have done until today.”
The four pillars of “Strong Greece”
As he noted, the four axes that constitute Strong Greece are: dynamic Economy, prosperous Society, armored Defense, effective Diplomacy, and clarified that there can be no economic progress without security, social cohesion and international recognition. He then briefly presented the government’s initiatives in these four fields.
The “arrows” toward Androulakis, Tsipras and Karystianos
His stance was harsh toward the end of his speech against the opposition, with specific arrows toward Nikos Androulakis, Alexis Tsipras, Maria Karystianos and others, without however naming them. “On one side, yesterday’s protagonists will parade with supposedly contemporary personas, with day-before-yesterday’s slogans, but also parties that advocate an easy and mainly uncostly tomorrow, while their own needle remains stuck in past decades. While, on the other side, left-wing and right-wing populism will meet in the field of anti-systemism,” he said referring to the upcoming pre-election period, while continuing as follows: “‘Counterfeiters of hope’ and ‘gravediggers of anger’ will become one, to finally unite in practice with those who ‘sell’ religion by the meter and patriotism by the kilo. An alliance against New Democracy that ultimately becomes a threat against democracy itself.”
