Greece is tired of ND: the government is heading towards dangerous elections

New Democracy maintains first place in the polls, but growing discontent, scandals and divisions on the right are making self-government increasingly less realistic. Three open woundswhich government cannot “heal”.

Latest polls show: Kyriakos Mitsotakis no longer controls the agenda as much as before, and ND self-government is turning from a working scenario into a distant dream.

According to the survey GPO for Star, 69.1% citizens want a different government to be formed after the next elections. For the continuation of the government New Democracy led by Kyriakos Mitsotakis perform only 27.5%. This is no longer ordinary voter fatigue. This is a political signal: the country wants a change of course.

Intending to vote New Democracy retains first place, but stays near the danger zone: 25% in intention and 28.6% in voting evaluation. With such dynamics, self-government becomes almost unattainable, especially if a new project appears on the right Antonis Samarasand in the center and left will continue to grow Alexis Tsipras And Maria Caristianu.

New batch Alexis Tsipras is already establishing itself as the main player in the opposition field: in the GPO poll it receives 13.2% intending to vote and 15.1% in assessment. PASOK goes to third position, and “Hope for Democracy” Maria Karistianu becomes a separate center of gravity for the protest voice.

The first wound: the economy that people feel with their wallets

The government loves to talk about growth, investment, ratings and macroeconomic stability. But the voter votes not with the Ministry of Finance’s schedules, but with the supermarket bill, rent, gasoline, mortgage and taxes. And here the picture for the authorities is much worse.

Farmers complain about delays in payments and subsidies, housing cost has become one of the main social problems, and high prices continue to eat up income. The middle class, which was the basis of political dominance New Democracyincreasingly feels not protected, but used.

The government is selling the public a success story, but a significant portion of citizens see something else: prices are rising, housing is becoming unaffordable, taxes and bills are pressing, and the state reacts mainly with press releases. This is the main failure of ND: it still speaks in the language of stability when people are already living in survival mode.

The second wound: scandals and the smell of cover-up

The second problem is institutional fatigue and scandals. History with Predator and wiretaps never disappeared from political memory. Moreover, after the statements of the founder Intellexa Tala Diliana that the company supplied spyware only to states and security agencies, the topic received a new lease of life. European media also wrote that this again revived the Greek wiretapping scandal.

This is extremely unpleasant for the authorities. If spyware was sold only to government agencies, then the old convenient question “Who used this?” becomes no longer the rhetoric of the opposition, but a political mine under the government narrative itself.

Add to this the refusal of a full-fledged political investigation, a sense of closure, the concentration of power in the hands of a narrow circle and the usual government manner of responding to scandals with arrogance. The result is not just mistrust. There is a feeling of a system that covers itself.

Third wound: split on the right

The most dangerous blow for Mitsotakis may come not from the left, but from the right. Antonis Samaras He has long since left the role of a silent former prime minister. After exclusion from New Democracy it has become an independent center of discontent within the right camp, and reports about the preparation of a new political project are already causing nervousness in Megaro Maximo.

If Samaras will really create a new party, he will hit exactly where ND is especially vulnerable: the people’s patriotic and traditionally right-wing electorate. This will not necessarily make Samaras the country’s new leader. But he doesn’t need to. It is enough to take away a few percent from the ND for self-government to become mathematically impossible.

This is the nightmare for Mitsotakis: New Democracy begins to lose in several directions at once. On the right, she is being pressed by Samaras and tougher patriotic forces. In the center and on the left the protest voice is being collected Tsipras And Karystiana. A PASOKalbeit without a breakthrough, remains a factor in future coalition calculations.

Karystiana is taken away by moral protest

A separate problem for the authorities is Maria Caristianu. Her party “Hope for Democracy” grew not from the party apparatus, but from public anger after the tragedy in Tempi. Reuters noted that Caristianu is turning the demand for justice in the train accident case into a political project capable of entering parliament.

For ND this is more dangerous than ordinary opposition criticism. Caristianu speaks not in the language of the old party struggle, but in the language of moral accusation: the state did not protect, the authorities did not respond, the perpetrators at the top were not punished. It is difficult to fight against this with the usual methods of political advertising.

That is why its growth is painful for Mitsotakis. She takes more than just votes. She takes away from the authorities the right to speak on behalf of “normality”, “order” And “responsible management”.

Mitsotakis dilemma

Mitsotakis trapped by his own success. He built power on the image of stability, controllability and the absence of an alternative. But now it is this image that is beginning to crack. Stability looks more and more like stagnation, controllability – like a closed vertical, and the lack of an alternative – like fear of change.

If the government continues on the same line, it risks losing not only self-government, but also political initiative. And this is a different quality of crisis. When the government is first, but is not able to form a majority, it ceases to be the master of the game and becomes a participant in coalition bargaining.

The next elections may become not just a fight between parties, but a vote on fatigue with the Mitsotakis system. ND hasn’t collapsed yet. But she no longer looks untouchable. And this is much more dangerous for her than any one-time decline in the polls.

Editorial comment

New Democracy is entering the most dangerous period since coming to power. Her problem isn’t just one scandal, one poll, or one competitor. The problem is the accumulated irritation of society, which is no longer extinguished by talk of stability.

The economy does not give people a sense of security. Scandals create the smell of cover-up. The right flank begins to retreat. The center and the protest electorate are looking for new faces. In such a situation, ND can retain first place, but lose the main thing – the ability to rule alone. And for a party that is accustomed to governing from the top down and without unnecessary negotiations, this will not just be an electoral loss. This will be the end of the political era of Mitsotakis in its current form.

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