On Tuesday morning, Kyriakos Mitsotakis had a meeting with New Democracy MPs from Thessaloniki, just a few hours before the announcements regarding the campaign against school violence.
The Prime Minister and the MPs chose a café in the center of Thessaloniki for their meeting, while reportedly, a briefing had preceded regarding the pre-election campaign for the European elections.
The MPs who were present at the table with the Prime Minister were Diamantis Golidakis, the Deputy Minister of Health, Dimitris Vartzopoulos, the Deputy Minister of Tourism, Elena Rapti, Kostas Gioulekas, Dimitris Kouvelas, Theodoros Karaoglou, Stavros Kalafatis, Stratos Simopoulos, Maria-Nefeli Chatziioannidou, and Fanis Pappas.
The Prime Minister discussed with all Thessaloniki MPs about the government’s emergency grant to the Municipality of Thessaloniki, amounting to 13 million euros, and told the MPs, “You should tell this to the people.”
Kyriakos Mitsotakis and the MPs also talked about the electric buses of OASTH, which are already running trial routes in Thessaloniki, with the Prime Minister also mentioning the torpedo boat “Velos,” which operates as a floating museum, announcing that it will remain in Thessaloniki. “We will examine and resolve the issue, and Velos will stay in Thessaloniki,” he said about this matter, according to voria.gr.
During his walk, he conversed with some female students from a school in Pylaia who were standing in front of the hotel. “Girls, why are you here?” he joked, to which he received the answer that they were on a school trip, and he then told them, “Then you are justified.”
“Code: Northern Greece in New Democracy”
“The conference is over, now the European elections begin.” With this phrase, a central party official of New Democracy described the atmosphere prevailing in the party’s offices to protothema.gr. Special emphasis, however, will be given to Northern Greece, where ND traditionally maintained strong forces. Lately, however, it is under pressure due to significant leaks observed especially towards Elliniki Lysi, but also towards Victory. Indeed, as people familiar with the demographics report, it is not excluded that Elliniki Lysi may flirt even with the second position in individual constituencies, being able to undermine PASOK and SYRIZA.
Mr. Mitsotakis is expected to visit several constituencies in Northern Greece until the elections, starting today from Thessaloniki, where together with the Minister of Education Kyriakos Pierrakakis and Deputy Minister Zeta Makri, they will present the anti-bullying platform at a school in Polichni. Subsequently, Mr. Mitsotakis is expected to take a walk in Polichni, while it is reminded that he had visited Thessaloniki about a month ago, speaking at the pre-conference of ND. The “alarm” in the ND headquarters, of course, has not only sounded for Thessaloniki – it should be noted that ND scored a rather moderate performance in the A’ Thessaloniki – but also for the other prefectures of Central Macedonia.
Special mention was made by experienced party officials for Kilkis, Pella, Pieria, and Chalkidiki, where right-wing parties have increased their presence. Of course, increased momentum exists overall, for the whole spectrum of Northern Greece, which also include the areas of Western and Eastern Macedonia and Thrace.
According to reliable sources cited by protothema.gr, May will be a purely pre-election month for Mr. Mitsotakis, who will be regularly on the road. Until then, he has obligations to settle with trips abroad, such as Lithuania and Poland this week, and Brussels for the EU Summit. Simultaneously, plans are underway for those who will go “door-to-door” throughout the country. These teams will consist of ministers, MPs, general secretaries, as well as prospective MEPs. According to estimates from party officials, they are expected to be on the road even before Easter, covering the entire areas that will include visits to prefectures and major cities.
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