The resignation of the main opposition New Democracy (ND) interim leader Evangelos Meimarakis and that of Andreas Papamimikos as secretary of the central electoral committee (KEFE) served to defuse tensions within the conservative party. A temporary truce appears to have settled after 48 hours of fear that internal strife would threaten the party’s stability.

The new conservative party caretaker is now Yiannis Plakiotakis, and he will hold the position until a permanent leader is elected next month.

Plakiotakis as interim leader called for calm within the party. “At this crucial hour, reason should prevail,” he said. “I ask everyone, especially the four candidates (Meimarakis, Adonis Georgiadis, Kyriakos Mitsotakis, Apostolos Tzitzikostas) to calm things down so the party can get out of this dead end.”

The two previous conservative leaders – Antonis Samaras and Costas Karamanlis – were absent from Tuesday’s gathering of conservative lawmakers amid calls from some members that they should return to the frontline.