By Antonis Anzoletou

There are many disputes in the next ballot and even more unexpected ones, as the moment the parties are making their pre-election plans a tragic marine accident came to change everything. Be that as it may, the political forces have no choice but to return to everyday life. The Electoral College will decide whether to confirm or change the correlations as recorded on May 21. There is a big difference compared to previous rematches. Not in the three elections of 1989-1990, not in the summer of 2012, with the great “political earthquake”, the electoral system changed in between. In ten days when Greek citizens will be invited to return to the polls, they will vote with the enhanced proportional system which has the bonus feature which significantly increases the number of seats the first party will get. After all, this is where the main argument of the opposition is based. Self-reliance should not be translated into omnipotence and the image of the “party and a half” should be reversed. This is another logic, a completely different ballot box, which as all party leaders say, will be empty. If in May the voters voted for the governance model, this dilemma no longer exists.

As happened in 2012 and 2015, where the effect of the financial crisis and the memorandums were catalytic, a shift to smaller parties was also recorded on May 21. Not enough to give three of them (NIKI, Pleissi Eleftherias, MeRA25) the ticket to the Parliament. Now the facts are different. The opinion polls show in their majority that the first two will pass the 3% limit. Since everyone is betting that another election will not be needed, their possible entry into the Parliament will “deduct points” from the independence of the New Democracy. Voters may have abandoned the so-called systemic forces to some extent, but they also put a “brake” on them. They did not give a “blank cheque” to the little ones and are now reevaluating them. Possibly at the same time they gave more time in this way to parties like SYRIZA and PASOK. The official opposition has one last chance to blur its message and renew its party. Nikos Androulakis to show if he can come back as a powerful force in things.

It is the first time, after the coup, that the interest is not focused on what will happen between the first and second parties and who will take over the governance of the country. Simple analogy failed miserably to create convergence conditions. What is being played is the majority that will be won by New Democracy and how strong it will be. And at the same time, a hard “poker” is underway in the space of the center-left with a dispute over hegemony.