By Antonis Anzoletou

The composition of the new Parliament will be very different. Either because some MPs leave politics or because many will not succeed in being re-elected. In the May 21 election, in addition to the great competition in several districts, many representatives of the people of the 2019-2023 parliamentary term have decided, most of them for a long time, not to fight the battle of the cross. Some were surprised, while others are an example of how parliamentary life must at some point be completed in order to give space to younger politicians.

New Democracy

New Democracy has the most departures, since it is also the largest parliamentary group. More important is that of Kostas Karamanlis who completed 34 years of parliamentary life. He was prime minister from 2004 to 2009 and president of the blue faction from 1997 to 2009. In the 2019 elections, Panagiotis Pikramenos participated in the first position of the government’s State of the Union ballot and remained vice-president of the government throughout the four years. He will not be on the party lists in the next elections. With the data so far, Giorgos Gerapetritis will not participate in the lists either. Christos Tarantilis, who was a government representative for a short period of time, will also be left out by his own decision. Kostas Tzavaras, the member of parliament for Ilia of New Democracy since 2007, who had disagreed with the government’s line at some points, has also decided not to participate in the blue ballot. Absent from the new Parliament, as he recently announced, will also be the MP of Ioannina of the New Democracy Stavros Kalogiannis, declaring that an important cycle for him is closing and a new one is opening.

Georgia Martinou, who was very popular in her region, will not participate in the list of Eastern Attica, nor will the MP of A’ Piraeus Christoforos Boutsikakis. After six parliamentary terms, Halkidiki MP Giorgos Vagionas will not be on the blue ballots either. Themis Heimarras also put himself out of the ballots, who resigned as an MP of Fthiotida with a letter to the president of the Parliament in order, as he pointed out, to facilitate the work of justice in a case concerning him. As is well known, Grevena MP Andreas Patsis, who was removed from the New Democracy parliamentary group last October and remained an independent in Parliament, will also remain on the ballot.

SYRIZA

From the SYRIZA camp, two former MPs from the State ballot of 2019, as everything shows, will not be on the party’s ballots that will be closed on Friday. Alekos Flambouraris and Vassilis Vassilikos. Spyros Lappas from Karditsa and Sakis Papadopoulos from Trikala have long announced that they will give room to younger candidates to enter the lists of SYRIZA. At the beginning of February, Yiannis Giolas from Argolis also announced his decision not to enter the battle of the cross. Irini Agathopoulou caused a disturbance in the ranks of the official opposition when she announced at the last Central Committee meeting that she did not wish to be a candidate in Kilkis. The reason was the inclusion in the ballot of Pavlos Tonikidis. Angeliki Adamopoulou, who switched from MeRA25 to SYRIZA and decided to become independent again in mid-February, will not participate in the lists of Koumoundourou.

PASOK

Harilaou Trikoupi will not have in its ranks Giorgos Kamina who has long since announced his decision not to be on the party’s new ballots for personal reasons. Vassilis Kegeroglou chose the municipality of Minoa Pediada and the self-governing elections of October.

KKE

Aleka Papariga will be one of the most resounding absences of the next Parliament. She remained in the position of secretary of the Central Committee of the KKE for 22 years (1991-2013) and completed, before taking the decision to leave, 30 years of parliamentary presence.

Greek solution

Antonis Mylonakis and Anastasia Aikaterini Alexopoulou announced that they will withdraw from the ballots following the party’s decision to “move” to other constituencies than those that have been elected in the upcoming parliamentary elections. The “war” and mutual recriminations continue in the Hellenic Solution on the occasion of reports that implicated them in defection scenarios, after the elections, in the event of the formation of a government by the ND.