In a strange and unexpected way, the vote for the President of Greece has turned into a prelude to the next parliamentary elections.
Especially since the Prime Minister made it clear publicly that he will be seeking a third term in office, and without any change to the electoral law.
Meaning that the situation calls for the governing party to aim to amass enough votes to continue to rule alone, without coalition partners. No other choices seem available, so they’ll have to run with the strategy and see how successful—or otherwise—it proves.
Which they are doing, because New Democracy’s selection of Kostas Tasoulas as its candidate for the Presidency and appointment of Nikitas Kaklamanis as Speaker of the Hellenic Parliament have clearly been made with this strategy in mind.
Both moves are intended to rally the ruling party around a more traditional core. But what they actually deliver in an overdose of old-school Rightism.
New Democracy must think it has scope for a rightwards shift, given that Mitsotakis’ presence ensures its dominance in the Center. And because the various opposition parties show no inclination to reach any sort of agreement with it or with each other.
Of course, it remains to be seen whether the ND strategists are right. Of course, the ballot box will be the final arbiter or that, and it’s far too early to rush to any conclusions either way.
That said, the Prime Minister seems to think that a non-ND candidate being chosen for the Presidency of the Republic would be received as a dress rehearsal for a “coalition”, whether it be with PASOK (the more natural choice, perhaps), or with some segment of the fragmented nationalist right (which he does not want and which would be damaging for him).
Which would not chime with his ambitions for a third term.
Of course, the period between now and the next elections is far too long to be treated simply as a prelude. Even more so because there are no indications to date that Mitsotakis will, or has any reason to, call early elections.
On the other hand, we cannot spend the next two and a half years hanging around waiting for the polls to open.
Which is why the government will need to take initiatives and put some plan or other into motion to fill the gap. Why it needs to do things.
That’s the hardest part of the show. Or of the dress rehearsal, if you prefer.
Because the government will have to prove in practice the continued validity of the balance between Right and Center that has proved its greatest selling point thus far, and keep doing so for a full two and a half years.
Only time will tell whether its choices for the Presidency of the Republic and the Speaker of Parliament are going to make this task easier or more difficult.