With Sunday’s critical snap election quickly approaching, the two main contenders – SYRIZA and New Democracy – have escalated their election campaigns, by pressuring smaller parties and striving for negative votes.
One of the deciding factors in Sunday’s elections will be how the undecided will vote and how high the abstention rate will be. As such, the two parties are aiming to polarize the electorate, in order to galvanize party support and attract undecided voters. In SYRIZA’s case, Alexis Tsipras is asking for the people to say no to the “old regime”, while New Democracy’s Evangelos Meimarakis is urging voters to condemn SYRIZA for its seven months in power.
The SYRIZA president essentially equates Mr. Meimarakis with his predecessor Antonis Samaras and claims that New Democracy is unable to negotiate. Mr. Tsipras has also underlined the implication of New Democracy officers in various scandals, such as former Samaras consultant Stavros Papastavrou being included in the Lagarde List of suspect tax evaders.
On the contrary, Mr. Meimarakis is focusing his campaign on deconstructing SYRIZA’s moral advantage, by highlighting the recent scandal involving Alekos Flampouraris and arguing that the dilemmas posed in this election are “arrogance or cooperation, uncertainty or credibility and insecurity or stability”.
New Democracy’s provisional leader will give his main election campaign speech on Thursday evening at Omonia Square, with former PM Kostas Karamanlis making an opening statement, while SYRIZA’s leader will give his main speech on Friday on Syntagma Square. Mr. Tsipras will have Podemos chief Pablo Iglesias and Die Linke’s Gregor Gysi by his side.
