The first place that the candidate of the main opposition party Rena Dourou seems to get with great easiness confirms the strategic objective set by SYRIZA for the elections. The victory of Mrs Dourou means that SYRIZA retains the dominance it had since 2012 in Attica region and puts great bases in the attack unleashed by SYRIZA to overthrow the government scheme. Also, the difference between the candidate of New Democracy, Giorgos Koumoutsakos, creates a big handicap for the ruling party in the overall performance plan that both parties have in regional elections.

The easy victory of Mrs Dourou proved that the polls were wrong according to which she was always in the second place and the difference between her and the candidate Giorgos Sgouros was very big. Just only the last weekend did a clearer picture start forming but even then no one expected – except for the central staff of SYRIZA- that Mrs Dourou would prevail leaving the other candidates behind her, as the exit polls recorded.

However, according to today’s estimations, the candidacy of Mrs Dourou showed an impressive dynamic during the last ten days, which surpassed all limits.

Something that will be interesting is to see if Mrs Dourou will exceed the percentage that SYRIZA gained in the national elections in 2012 in that region. If she does, then the political message will be proved very strong.

A second point, which relates to the first one, is to see the difference between her and Mr Sgouros in order the conditions for the second round will be established. Given that there is a certain “relation” between the candidate Mr Sgouros and New Democracy electorate body because of the dilemmas on government stability which will be posed, it is of great importance to see whether this difference will be reversible.

Giorgos Sakellaridis coming first wins the impressions of the first round

No one had seen this coming, neither opinion polls conducted by companies that work with SYRIZA nor election analysts of SYRIZA. The prevalence of SYRIZA candidate, Giorgos Sakellaridis in the first round of the election race and with proportionally significant difference is considered by all as the biggest surprise of local elections.

Mr. Sakellaridis does justice now to two bets set by SYRIZA and by Alexis Tsipras in person: Firstly, the bet of politicization of the battle, even in the municipality of Athens and secondly, the bet of highlighting a new generation of SYRIZA members, since Mr. Sakellaridis is a 34-year-old politician, younger than the president of SYRIZA.

On the other hand, the outcome of the election race in Athens for New Democracy was an unwelcome development, as it was divided and eventually limited to a supporting actor. New Democracy party lost the battle of impressions and might suffer severe political wounds.

The second round, however, for Mr. Sakellaridis might be very difficult since he will have to confront center and right-wing forces.