A few minutes before the launch of the book he had edited on the subject of artificial intelligence, the former minister and MP for ND received a phone call from an associate of former Prime Minister Antonis Samaras. With this phone call, Euripides Stylianides was informed that Samaras would ultimately not be present at the presentation, which the “whole” Southwest attended, although until the previous day the former prime minister had confirmed his attendance.

“Personal choice,” Samaras‘ associates said in the aftermath of the leak of his non-attendance. Admittedly, one could have…sniffed it out if they had been in the Old Hall, as the classic harbingers of Samaras’ presence were absent. It is obvious that by not invoking “personal reasons“, Samaras’ associates wanted to leave open to interpretation his non-attendance, which apparently has to do with the fact that it was learned that Kyriakos Mitsotakis was going to speak briefly. Of course, in the aftermath of the announcement, even people linked by decades of friendship with the former prime minister told protothema.gr in wells at the Conservatory that he made a mistake not to come.

Wrong or not, this is something Mr Samaras knows and judges best. A man from his entourage, his lawyer Dimitris Giannos wrote on Facebook that it’s not all politics. And obviously the former prime minister’s personal tragedy with the loss of his daughter casts a heavy shadow, but Mr. Samaras himself canceled a scheduled appearance that he might not have planned in the first place.

Front line…all in all

Mr Samaras’ stance clearly finalises his break with Mr Mitsotakis. The prime minister, however, is realistic, measuring his words well as he exited the event. “As you can see, the Southwest is at the forefront of artificial intelligence in general,” he told reporters waiting for him at the exit. He could have said nothing or he could have been joking. But he wanted to send the message that, those who belong to the Southwest were at the conservatory yesterday afternoon.

A number of government officials may have been positive about Samaras all along and have talked about the need for him to get back into the swing of things, but Samaras did not seem to be in the mood to do so. He has not responded to any nods and his statement from the early days of Panos Rouchi’s hunger strike at Syntagma showed that he is on a different wavelength. His political plans are of course still blurred, although he is talking to members of both the New Democracy and other right-wing parties. Many are predicting that he will form a party, but no one can say for sure.

For Mitsotakis, the development means that he will have to proceed as it is and as it is. He expressed himself mildly about the former prime ministers at the TIF, and Maximou as a whole lowered its tone, but sometimes life has a different way of doing things. “When life brings you lemons, you make lemonade,” a central blue party official commented mockingly yesterday afternoon. For instance, with Kostas Karamanlis, Mitsotakis shook hands, rather warmer than the one in Filothei a year ago. The former Prime Minister also applauded him at the end of his speech on artificial intelligence. Perhaps out of politeness.

Watch a video of Kyriakos Mitsotakis shaking hands with Kostas Karamanlis

The wells and Karamanlis

Old and newer members of the New Democracy party, in the many wells that were set up, agreed that party unity is under test. But this is the situation and it is not going to change immediately. Among the day’s side events, Kostas Karamanlis invited Defence Minister Nikos Dendias to sit in the empty seat next to Antonis Samaras as soon as Dendias appeared. Dendias elegantly declined and went to his designated seat, with Adonis Georgiades soon taking the seat next to him. If Mr Dendias had sat next to Mr Karamanlis, it is obvious that the flashbulbs would have gone off. Shortly afterwards…the shipowner Giorgos Prokopiou was served by sitting in Mr. Samaras’ empty chair and filling the gap between the former prime minister and Maximos Charakopoulos.

Karamanlis, however, will intervene in the matter next week, at an event for Anna Psaruda Benaki at the Old Parliament. He is expected to make references to issues of institutions and the rule of law, the intensity of which will be measured. People talking to him, however, believe that at this juncture he does not want to inflame the atmosphere. It remains to be seen, of course, whether he will want to respond to the “blissful immobility” that Mitsotakis had (also) attributed to his foreign policy.

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See highlights from the event:

In the book Pateli

Today, however, Mitsotakis will be present at the presentation of another book, this one by his former director of his economic office Alexis Patelis on the years of his administration. At the National Gallery tonight the audience will be different, more centrist and less partisan. Many of them belong to the category of voters that Mitsotakis has brought close to the New Democracy in recent years. “By coincidence with Pavlopoulos, in the same place as Sakellaropoulou,” a government source said yesterday, as the former president of the Republic is expected to be present today.