Determined to clearly cut through the scenarios developed for electoral surprise, following the deletion of Antonis Samaras from the parliamentary group of New Democracy, the government appears, according to protothema.gr.
This message is expected to be cut today, during the briefing of political editors, by government spokesman Pavlos Marinakis, who will de facto be asked to further explain the decision taken by Kyriakos Mitsotakis on Saturday.
At the Maximou Mansion, they understand the interest caused by this decision, which is a break in time for things within the New Democracy, as no former prime minister has ever been expelled from the parliamentary group and the party more broadly. But they do not want to get caught up in an endless “Samarology”, as a government official puts it, as internal party processes are of little concern to the people. Of course, Samaras’ exit constitutes a major political event both in terms of the character of the New Democracy party and the strategy of Kyriakos Mitsotakis, who wanted to send a message in all directions that he will not be blackmailed.
This is also what the Maximou Mansion believes that Samaras wanted to do by proposing Kosta Karamanlis for the presidency of the Republic, two months before the start of the relevant parliamentary procedure. To “trap” Mr Mitsotakis in a way and lock the government into a thankless debate that would monopolize the news. Besides, the Maximos Mansion has at all tones signaled that it does not want to open the presidential election debate anarchically. Of course, after the Samaras shot and given that the debate will be opened de facto, the period until the election of the new President will have a lot of turbulence for the government as well. And while the process may no longer dissolve Parliament, Mitsotakis will have to handle the issue carefully.
From now on, the Mansion House will seek a flight to the front, as prime minister associates say he has a four-year plan that includes allocating financial resources in the coming years. At the same time, the government believes that Samaras will not easily find … imitators within the party’s C.O., given the lack of clarity on his next steps. The most troubled of the two is the other MP from Messinia and a confidant of Samaras, Miltos Chrysomallis, who will take a position in the coming days.
By then, however, the definitive deletion of Samaras will have taken place, as the Ethics Committee of the party’s Central Committee meets on Tuesday afternoon and then the ND Ethics Committee will take its turn.
“Not silent and uninvolved”
As protothema.gr wrote yesterday, Samaras is in New York for a few days, where he will have his thoughts and weigh his next moves. Yesterday, the director of his press office, Nikos Tsioutsias (Mega), did not rule out the possibility of a new party formation. Another close associate of the former prime minister, with whom protothema.gr discussed, is in a similar vein. Of course, not everyone in the former prime minister’s close circle is in agreement on this issue. And in any case, it is not easy for Samaras at this stage of his life and at this juncture to repeat something he did in completely different terms in 1993.
His role in the Greek right, beyond ND, will however remain important, as the reactions of Aphrodite Latinoopoulou and NIKIS show. However, as Tsiouchias put it yesterday, Samaras will not remain silent and uninvolved.
The intervention of Karamanlis
In this new landscape that is taking shape, the new intervention of former Prime Minister Kostas Karamanlis, who appears behind the scenes to resent the deletion of Samaras, considering it an extreme move to banish a former Prime Minister, is expected with interest.
It seems to be an extreme move to remove an outgoing president.
Karamanlis is scheduled to speak Friday in Patra for journalist George Hardalias’ book “Yavol,” for which he has written the foreword. However, he is reportedly weighing the possibility of intervening before Friday, positioning himself for developments. If he does not do so before Friday, it is clear that his speech will be of additional interest.