At the top level, the political confrontation between the parties is now developing, exactly one month before May 21 and the people’s verdict that will be taken at the polls. New Democracy and SYRIZA have nominated their leaders in a pre-election period that officially opens on Saturday, with the visit of Kyriakos Mitsotakis to the President of the Republic Katerina Sakellaropoulouat the Presidential Palace, at 11 am.

New Democracy and SYRIZA have focused on the day after the elections and how a government will be formed. Kyriakos Mitsotakis refers to an attempt by the opposition, and in particular SYRIZA, to form a “government of losers”, which he calls “political monstrosity”, with Alexis Tsipras responding that “the math doesn’t work out” and therefore, a government SYRIZA it will only exist if it is the first party in the May 21 elections.

“If the beans come out…”

“If the beans come out, have no doubt that he will attempt this kind of “political monstrosity”, bypassing the first party and trying to form a government, watch out now, with Tsipras as Prime Minister, Varoufakis as Finance Minister again, possibly Government Representative the Antonaro. I don’t know what else we can see”, said Kyriakos Mitsotakis.

“It is not a whim, it is not an obsession of ours that we say this will only happen if SYRIZA comes first, nor do we say it to get votes. It’s called mathematics, simple mathematics. It will not be possible to form a government if the first party does not participate in it”, countered Alexis Tsipras.

The political rivalry between its leaders New Republic and SYRIZA extended to the electoral system, with Kyriakos Mitsotakis declaring: “I don’t know if SYRIZA is for laughing or crying. But he is sure of the trap of simple analogies and the perspective of governance he has left behind. So we tell them at the start of the pre-election period that we will do them a favor. We move forward or we turn back. We want tangible results or easy lies. We want a government that overcomes storms or amateurs who are shipwrecked in difficulties”.

“ND is instability and uncertainty”

Alexis Tsipras, for his part, tries to “break” the basic dilemma posed by Kyriakos Mitsotakis for “self-sufficient government and stable Greece”, saying: “The ruling party is risk-taking, it says that ‘this is instability’, it says that ‘this will carries uncertainty”. But in reality, uncertainty and instability are the same and not the prospect of cooperative governments.”

“We choose the firm boldly forward and SYRIZA the Justice everywhere, having next to its leader a convicted 13-0 in the special court, his close associate Nikos Pappa. 2015 is not so far away to forget it and say we forgot it and we will make a fresh start, give me a new chance to govern without memoranda, all the nice things we hear from the official opposition. Closed banks, a third unnecessary memorandum, the country on the edge of the cliff, these are what we experienced,” said the president of New Democracy.

“We managed to make the country a normal country. And that’s why I can say today that I feel proud, we feel proud. Because we were perhaps the only post-colonial government, where what we left behind was such that the next government could not say what they usually say in Greece. “Every time governments change, the government that takes over says ‘we received chaos,'” countered Alexis Tsipras.

Dilemmas about the past, present and future

The dilemmas of the elections, as posed on a daily basis by the leaders of the two ruling parties, concern the past, the present and the future:

-The past, with the comparison of the two governments and by extension the two prime ministers, the New Democracy of Kyriakos Mitsotakis and the SYRIZA of Alexis Tsipras. What they did, what they omitted and what they didn’t manage to do.

-The present for their positions in the current affairs, the choices in the persons, their program.

-The future, for the policies that will be applied to the key problems facing the citizens, such as punctuality, low wages, improvement in Education, Health, crisis management and preparation for the country as a whole to cope with the challenges of the next decades and their vision.