By Antonis Anzoletou

The “riddle” for the municipality of Athens and the candidates who will claim to be in the big office of Megaros in Kotzia Square after October 8 or 15 is slowly being solved. Kostas Bakoyiannis is the undisputed favorite after the 42.65% he recorded in the first round in 2019. Given that the election of mayor and regional governor is now guaranteed from the first round, with an election threshold of 43%, it is a fact that the current mayor wishes to “clean up” the game from the first Sunday. It is recalled that the Kostas Bakoyaninis five years ago he defeated Nasos Iliopoulos on the second Sunday of the election with a percentage of 65.25% against 34.75% of the current parliamentary representative of SYRIZA. Nothing, however, can be taken for granted, as the three major opposition parties are playing “strong cards” in order to cut the “lead” that the blue faction has from the two consecutive national elections.

His candidacy seems to be “locked” in the official opposition Kostas Zachariadis. Due to the poor result of SYRIZA, he was left out of the Parliament for a few votes in the northern sector of Athens, however, he is considered a member with wide acceptance in Koumoundourou. He was the head of the Interior Department and a member of the self-governing committee, while he is undoubtedly one of the most active members of the party and a supporter of the expansion towards the center. It was certain that after the elections an attempt would be made to use him in some important position. The official opposition believes that it is the best possible solution given PASOK’s refusal to cooperate. The contacts made between the two parties for a joint candidacy led by Dimitris Vervesos led a combination that ended nowhere.

Nikos Androulakis is reportedly very close to giving the “anointing” for the municipality of Athens to NTUA professor, Haris Doukas. He is a technocratic person with experience in urban regeneration and bioclimatic planning. It is a big bet for PASOK to record a good number in the largest municipality of the country, as in Athens A, in the recent elections, it finished fourth behind the KKE with a percentage of 6.86%. The comparison, however, will be fatal with Pavlos Geroulanos who in 2019 managed to “flirt” with second place by getting 13.19%. Third on June 25 came the KKE, which is hoped with Nikos Sofianos to manage to bring a double-digit percentage and improve the previous one (7.46%) it had received with the combination of “Popular Rally of Athens”.