Few events in recent years have taken on such intense political significance as the one scheduled to take place today at 6 PM at the Pentagon. Defense Minister Nikos Dendias has invited the entire political and state leadership of the country to the inauguration of the new facade of the Ministry of Defense building, in a ceremony that transcends the character of a simple architectural event.
Read: Kyriakos Mitsotakis: With two moves he sets the agenda – Cabinet meeting on OPEKEPE reform and bureaucracy in the morning, speech at the Pentagon at Dendias’s event in the afternoon
High symbolism event at Pentagon: Mitsotakis’s unifying move, power display by Dendias
The event is considered highly symbolic, as it marks the ministry’s transition to a new era of aesthetic and functional renewal. At the same time, it is expected to take the form of a first-line political event, given that –beyond Mr. Dendias– Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis will also deliver a speech, in the presence of President of the Republic Konstantinos Tasoulas, Parliament Speaker Nikitas Kaklamanis, political leaders, former prime ministers, donor businessmen, as well as former Defense Ministers and Presidents of the Republic. As New Democracy sources note, several MPs from the governing party are also expected to attend.
Messages from Samaras and Karamanlis
Interest, however, focuses on the possible –or rather unlikely, according to current information– attendance of the two former prime ministers Kostas Karamanlis and Antonis Samaras, who have been officially invited. Both maintain, according to people in their circles, good personal relations with Nikos Dendias, however their political calculations seem to dictate distancing from the Maximos Mansion.
Mr. Samaras, as his associates note, has made it clear that he avoids any joint public appearance with Kyriakos Mitsotakis, something that was evident from the recent cancellation of his participation in the presentation of Evripidis Stylianidis’s book. According to well-informed sources, the former prime minister continues to move autonomously, outside the party structures of today’s New Democracy, while processes around creating a new political entity are ongoing but not at a rapid pace.
Kostas Karamanlis, for his part, chose to travel to Northern Epirus on the eve of October 28th to honor the fallen of ’40. As sources from his circle report, the former prime minister visited military cemeteries in Vouliarates and Kleisoura, in a move estimated to have both symbolic and personal character, as his father, Alekos Karamanlis, had fought on the same front. Political observers, however, do not rule out that this specific visit also functions as a “decent excuse” for his absence from the Pentagon. At the same time, according to well-informed New Democracy sources, the initiative is also interpreted as a discreet message of readiness for “return to the front line“, should post-election conditions require it.
At the same time, Antonis Samaras did not miss the opportunity to repeat his criticism of the government through his message for the national anniversary. “85 years ago, an entire people said just one word – which remained in History: NO to submission! […] I hope we never forget it. And that we prove worthy of it…“, he characteristically stated, once again leaving barbs about government “appeasement” toward Turkish provocations.
Personal challenge
The renovation project of the Pentagon facade, according to the Defense Minister’s staff, represents a personal challenge for Nikos Dendias, who from the beginning of his tenure had set as a priority the modernization of both the functionality and external image of the historic building. The goal, as emphasized, is to create a modern, bioclimatic and emblematic public building, worthy of its institutional role.
The new facade bears the artistic signature of internationally renowned sculptor and professor Konstantinos Varotsos, creator of the emblematic “Runner“. According to artistic circles, the work exudes dynamism and transparency, combining geometric clarity with elements of movement and power. In parallel, the renovation of the ministry’s interior spaces is also in full progress, with interventions in offices, technical infrastructure and staff areas, within the framework of a comprehensive reform plan aimed at improving the daily life of personnel.
The new bioclimatic facade, a donation from Mr. Evangelos Mytilineos, is part of a broader network of Ministry of Defense upgrade projects, which includes the “Ark of National Memory” (the monument inaugurated last March), the under-construction Cyber Warfare building (donation from Mr. Thanos Laskaridis), as well as the new entrance area for high-profile guests, a project recently completed thanks to the donation of Mr. Georgios Peristeris and GEK TERNA. As Ministry of Defense circles note, all of the above constitute a unified aesthetic and functional identity, which aspires to make the Pentagon “a symbol of a modern state with institutional self-confidence“.
