On the Road to the Elections

I suspect that the questions repeatedly posed to Mitsotakis about whether the elections will be held in 2027 and whether he will once again be a candidate for Prime Minister are nothing more than pleasantries.

No Prime Minister ever announces that he won’t be standing again two years before his term in office ends. The Prime Minister’s official residence would be torn apart before he left the podium.

And no head of government ever hints that elections may not take place at any time other than the end of the constitutional term. Because the government would be torn apart before the Maximos Mansion.

In any case, Mitsotakis is under no obligation to reveal his intentions, especially when this government’s constitutional term does not expire until 2027.

Even more so when there are other obvious questions that need to be asked and answered first.

Is he under pressure from someone or something to hold a general election? Is anyone or anything pressuring him to quit as prime minister? In both cases, the answer for now is probably ‘no’.

Especially since, assuming no worsening in the fiscal situation, Mitsotakis can bank on holding elections in 2027 with a budget surplus of 12-13 billion Euros—which is more than he’ll have spent getting there…

It’s not the solution to his problems, of course, nor even perhaps the key to the result, but I don’t recall anyone handing out money during an election suffering for it.

But nothing can be taken for granted. Conditions change. So Mitsotakis’ problem lies elsewhere and boils down to this: what will his opponents do on the road to the elections?

Of course, Sartre warned us long ago that “hell” is “other people”.

But with or without Hell’s assistance, a government will have to be formed somehow once the dust has settled. Especially if the polls are confirmed and the current governing party falls far short of an absolute majority.

That question has no easy answer, however. Mainly because the traditional axes of understanding and cooperation between Greece’s political forces are no longer in force.

The “center-right” and the “center-left” (which could be a plausible solution, as it is in Germany currently) are at loggerheads. And the other factions are all at each other’s’ throats, and wouldn’t provide a solution even if they weren’t.

So, in this case, “the road to the elections” may count for more than the elections themselves.

Especially if the Hell of other people is necessarily involved. And to be honest, I don’t see a whole lot of Heavens along the way.