In the end Kyriakos Mitsotakis proved the polls wrong and overturned the outcome in the first round of New Democracy’s elections.
He clearly prevailed over Evangelos Meimarakis in the leadership election of New Democracy and is now at the helm of the conservative party.
His win is significant because he ran his campaign in a clear way, presenting clear-cut and unpopular positions against populism and old-time political mechanism within his body that did everything it could to get him out of the game.
His electoral win is to a great extent personal and indicative of section of Greek society turning, which rejects the sirens of populism and demands real solutions to overcome the crisis.
It is rather interesting that the ultra liberal Kyriakos Mitsotakis prevailed over the representative of the populist right, without changing his strict rhetoric or compromising with the many calls for him to denounce the difficult decisions he took during his ministerial appointment in the Samaras government.
By winning under adverse conditions he is proving himself to be the prevailing expression of a very specific choice in economic policy, which was shot down and ridiculed in previous years, even if it is being strictly implemented by SYRIZA and the Independent Greeks, both of which parties were distinguished for ridiculing everything.
In this respect the new leader of New Democracy has the right to run his campaign in the same strict way in order to win the trust of the majority of the Greek people. If he manages to do so against the underlying populism, then there is no doubt that he will have a catalytic effect on Greek politics.
The Greek people now have many experiences and are well aware how catastrophic the populism has been for themselves and the country.
If is insists upon his line and reveals the inconsistencies of the old and new versions of the old political system, he will upset many.
The government will have to be the first to change its strategy, knowing that it is faced with a modern version of European politics that will not compromise with empty rhetoric.
Similarly the other opposition parties that thought they can sit on the fence will face a major existential problem as they will be forced to select whom to side with and whom to abandon.
In other words the new president of New Democracy has the opportunity to reorganize the badly-maintained Greek political scene.
All that he must to is carry on fighting against populism, as he has done in the months leading up to his election.
Antonis Karakousis
