Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis outlined his strategy ahead of next spring’s elections, expected to take place after Easter, during Tuesday’s Greece Talks conference, organised by travel.gr and Proto Thema. He reaffirmed his commitment to securing an outright parliamentary majority while continuing efforts to put pressure on PASOK.

Regarding the main centre-left opposition party, the government appears to be pursuing a carrot-and-stick approach. At the conference, Mitsotakis reiterated his willingness to approach PASOK if necessary after the elections. However, later in the afternoon, government sources targeted PASOK leader Nikos Androulakis over his parliamentary remarks concerning the Greece-Cyprus-Israel electricity interconnection project.

The first element of this strategy is the renewed invitation to cooperate. “I have ruled out a coalition government with the smaller parties to our right, and I have said that the only party with which we could potentially explore such a possibility is PASOK,” Mitsotakis said, rejecting any prospect of cooperation with parties such as Greek Solution.

The Prime Minister’s proposal also reflects the latest polling data being monitored by the Prime Minister’s office. According to its rolling surveys, PASOK appears to have reached a ceiling in third place, making it unlikely, at present, to finish second and consequently become the main opposition party.

Mitsotakis also acknowledged that PASOK itself has ruled out any possibility of cooperation with New Democracy, effectively signalling that responsibility for any political deadlock would not rest with him. “PASOK held an entire conference just to tell us that it does not want to cooperate with New Democracy. It did not say it does not want to cooperate with SYRIZA, it did not say it does not want to cooperate with Mr Tsipras, it did not say it does not want to cooperate, through conference decisions, with Ms Konstantopoulou,” Mitsotakis stressed.

Meanwhile, later in the afternoon, following a confrontation in Parliament between Androulakis and Environment and Energy Minister Stavros Papastavrou over the electricity cable project, government sources launched another attack on the PASOK president over his comments concerning the French diplomatic note to Turkey.

Sources at the Prime Minister’s office argued that the questions raised by Androulakis had already been answered publicly by Mitsotakis earlier at Greece Talks. They urged the PASOK leader to take heed of the Prime Minister’s observation that “political confrontation is legitimate, but here we are talking about national issues. And on national issues, seriousness and responsibility are not optional. They are everyone’s obligation.”

An outright majority as the only viable option

Having clearly defined his position on potential political partnerships, and assuming PASOK does not reverse its conference decision, Mitsotakis presented an outright New Democracy majority as the only realistic governing proposition currently available to voters. This argument is expected to become increasingly prominent as the election approaches, accompanied by the reminder that there is only one election ahead, an attempt to discourage voters from treating the ballot as an opportunity for a protest vote without immediate consequences.

“Single-party majority governments, insofar as they are accountable to the Greek people because they are elected by the Greek people, are much more effective and much more substantive. They do not engage in bargaining, they are not forced to accommodate smaller parties that often resort to blackmail to advance their own agendas, and they can make decisions much faster and much more decisively, at a time when this is precisely what is required of a country’s leadership,” Mitsotakis stressed. “People may agree or disagree with our policies, but this government is not stagnating. It makes many decisions,” he added.

The 25% electoral threshold

Beyond joking about whether interviewer Antonis Sroiter had somehow coordinated with his wife, Mareva Grabowski-Mitsotakis, when asking why he was seeking a third term in 2027, the Prime Minister appeared optimistic about the 25% electoral threshold he has set for New Democracy, which is linked to the allocation of bonus parliamentary seats under Greece’s electoral system.

“I like, you know, setting targets, both upper and lower ones. And I think that in this way we are accountable to citizens, while also explaining that, ultimately, we are accountable to our party for whatever result emerges,” Mitsotakis said.

His broader remarks were also intended to convey a political message that New Democracy is not operating with the arrogance of incumbency, a criticism that voters consistently identify as one of the negative aspects of the party’s record in government.

The government’s assessment, however, is that New Democracy will comfortably clear the threshold, with rolling opinion polls placing the governing party slightly above 30% in projected vote share.