The resignation of Alexis Tsipras from his position as a SYRIZA deputy, with the parallel announcement of the creation of a party by the former prime minister, did not surprise the Maximou Mansion, which has weighed this possibility and estimates that it will basically concern the rearrangement of forces in the wider Centre-Left. But this does not mean that the government will not recall the works and days of Mr Tsipras, as government officials believe that in the context of rebranding, he is attempting to “wash himself out”. On the other hand, government officials point out that a revival of the Mitsotakis-Tsipras dichotomy will not be attempted, as it is largely a dilemma that has been answered by the citizens.

This is largely a matter of the people’s choice, as it is a question of the people’s choice.

“The last time Tsipras spoke about ports, seas and tidal waves, we were all looking for a life preserver. Because I recall that capital controls, closed banks, the divisive referendum followed and our country went into debt over 100 unnecessary billions,” government spokesman Pavlos Marinakis said yesterday in a scathing manner, but he also avoided specifying the bar for the New Democracy party on how Alexis Tsipras will be measured. “If we as a government believe that our bar, our benchmark is the ’15-19 government, then we will not succeed,” Marinakis said meaningfully, adding that in 2019 and 2023, Kyriakos Mitsotakis won the trust of the citizens, not Tsipras. Therefore, the goal is the same for 2027.

Government officials told protothema.gr that the government’s bar is in practice its own self and the “deliverables” to citizens, on the basis of the commitments made by the Southwest. Of course, Tsipras’s reinstatement may “warm up” a more “hard-line” party audience again, but “centrist” voters do not seem to fear in the same way a restoration of the Syriza government. Instead, they are asking the government for efficiency in the problems they prioritize as overriding, the first being that of accuracy and the cost of living.

Rucci and the balances

In addition to the balances on the centre-left, however, in the South-West they are also called upon to manage their own affairs. Granting Panos Ruzzi’s request for exhumation and toxicology tests on his son Dennis, while not risking the start of the trial, was, according to government officials, at the core of the positioning of Megaro Maximou from the start. Notably, the government’s granting of the substance of the Ruchi request does not take the attempt by opposition parties to politically capitalize on the Tempi tragedy out of the frame, noting that certain forces have the sole aim of delaying the trial. This reference is obviously a photograph of Zoe Konstantopoulou, who is also a party to the trial.

All the previous days raised much discussion about the intervention of Nikos Dendias, which was explicitly in the direction of granting the request of Rouchi. Government officials attempted to “round off” the statement, saying that it did not differ from the government line. However, other members of the New Democracy party, such as Konstantinos Kyranakis and Dimitris Avramopoulos, were quick in the past few days to broadcast in the same tone as Dendias. It should be noted that yesterday morning Adonis Georgiades again criticised Dendias’ attitude, saying that “I could also go out and say that the demands of Rouchi should be accepted and that the whole world should love me. Couldn’t I go along with populism and say yes to everything?” The Pentagon, however, thinks that Dendias expressed a humane request, not ignoring that it was the responsibility of the judiciary, which ultimately responded.

The two books

In this environment, and in the aftermath of the ONNED conference, which passed rather under the radar, without much internal party interest, the spotlight this week shifts to two book launches. Their authors are, in a way, the two “faces” of the New Democracy, on the one hand the more traditional one and on the other the one of enlargement.

The first, that of Euripides Stylianidis, will take place on Wednesday at the Athens Conservatory on the subject of Artificial Intelligence, where it is not excluded that Kyriakos Mitsotakis, Kostas Karamanlis and Antonis Samaras will coincide for the first time in a long time. The first two have confirmed their presence; the third is very likely to make his first public appearance since the death of his daughter. On Thursday, respectively, the book by Alexis Patelis, former director of Mitsotakis’ economic office, on the Greek economy’s turnaround and the changing international image from 2019 to 2024, will be presented. The presentation will take place at the amphitheatre of the National Gallery, with Mr Mitsotakis present.