Politico: "The combination of a strong Mitsotakis and a weak opposition is very dangerous for Greece"

Politico, in a lengthy article covering the June 25 elections and polls that could see New Democracy gain a twofold lead over SYRIZA, highlights the risk of an extremely strong Kyriakos Mitsotakis, coupled with an extremely weak opposition.

Volfango Piccoli of risk analysis firm Teneo warns of the risk of arrogance, especially given the personality of the New Democracy leader. “Mitsotakis is at the helm and potentially for the first time in firm control of his party,” he told Politico.

“The main reason for New Democracy’s spectacular victory is the collapse of support for SYRIZA, whose ratings have plummeted, raising questions about whether PASOK can now challenge the position of the official opposition,” the Politico article notes.

“After such a victory, Mitsotakis can become arrogant,” Piccoli notes. “The opposition is extremely weak and it will take a long time to recover. The prime minister should pay attention to this aspect, because we have seen in other countries how a weak opposition can become a problem.” for the government, for the quality of policy making, for accountability and transparency. The fact that he is now so dominant leaves no excuse for Mitsotakis, and the expectations are also very high.”

Regarding SYRIZA and Alexis Tsipras, Politico comments that he is still weighed down by 2015 and, “Despite the fact that the New Democracy Party was saddled with a spy scandal, soaring inflation, fears over the rule of law and proceedings over the deadly train derailment, SYRIZA’s election campaign was unclear and failed to capitalize on government weaknesses.”

“Mitsotakis will dominate with a comfortable majority, Petros Ioannidis, political analyst and founder of About People, told Politico. – Usually when you win an election the first time you have a grace period, the second time you don’t. The paradox is that since the opposition has been destroyed, Mitsotakis has a new grace period.”

Regarding the image of SYRIZA in the elections, Ioannidis said that “SYRIZA was betting on anger, and after so many years of economic crisis and pandemic, people wanted to feel stability“, adding that the big victory of Kyriakos Mitsotakis was mainly due to poor campaign advertising for SYRIZA.

“I don’t see much expectations from people at the moment from politics in general, not to mention high expectations from the government.he continued. – It is obvious that the party identification of voters is very weak, votes are given in debt. The first decisive test for the government will be the next European elections in a year.”

As for the recovery of the investment rating, Piccoli notes that it has been downgraded, “but it’s strong in terms of being able to turn the page, to move on from old bad memories. This is good news for banks and for borrowers as it should help lower the cost of financing and it will be interesting to see if the government can take advantage of this.”

Nikos Vettas, head of Athens-based IOBE, sees two problems for the government: “A turbulent external environment cannot be ruled out as other eurozone countries are under pressure and some of the reforms needed at home may not be easy and will require careful planning and determination.”

He added that “The government must systematically maintain a primary surplus – spend less than it collects in taxes – and continue efforts to attract investment and modernize part of the public sector”.

As for the reforms, Piccoli noted that they have not moved forward in recent years:

“We haven’t seen much in recent years, obviously the pandemic has delayed the process, but there is a great need to reform the judiciary and the education sector in Greece. Mitsotakis needs to act quickly on this front before his political capital is spent.”

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