By Antonis Anzoletou

There was no lack of party anointings in these self-governing elections. In some cases, in fact, such as the candidacy of Nikos Hardalia for the region of Attica, a lot of noise was caused. The timing always plays a big role for the OTA polls and in the upcoming elections the fact that they follow the “conflicts” of May and June cannot but affect the procedures.

The much-desired de-partisanship of the regional-municipal elections will not take place on October 8 except in very few cases. “Hard rock” for the 13 regions and large municipalities is expected to exist. And indeed, the intense political conflict over the ongoing deadly fires, but also over the unjust death of AEK fan, Michalis Katsouri, will intensify in the next period. Everything will be in the background of the confrontation for the OTAs and the “knives” will certainly come out of the party staffs.

The strong “political aroma” given off by these polls is favored by the Thessaloniki International Exhibition and the presence of the leaders in the co-capital at the beginning of September.

Kyriakos Mitsotakis, with his presence at the events presenting the candidacies of Alkibiadis Stefanis and Dimitris Ptochos in the Northern Aegean and in the Peloponnese, respectively, gave the signal for the mobilization of all party forces. New Democracy wants to show that the 40.5% of June is also reflected in local communities.

In 2019, its dominance in large municipalities cannot be disputed. The 12 regions were “painted blue” in 2019 and now the majority faction wants to win in Crete as well after prevailing in the national polls. On the largest island of the country, Stavros Arnautakis, who comes from PASOK, is this time also supported by the N.D.

For SYRIZA it will be the first “battle” after the summer “crash”. And the first test for the new president who will have just “moved” to the seventh floor of Koumoundourou. The fact that the lists have not yet been closed shows that the party needs to reorganize its forces very quickly. And it is not something that can be done easily, as in SYRIZA even on the good days when it marched or was in power it showed its weakness at the local level.

Attempts were made to make openings, of course they were made in 2019 which gave better results to the then SYRIZA government compared to 2014. It had won 37 municipalities and among them it had supported independent candidates and was the first to cut the thread in Byron (Akis Katopodis), Keratsini – Drapetsona (Christos Vrettakos), Nice – Agios Ioannis Rentis (Giorgos Ioakeimidis), Chalandri (Simos Roussos). Together with PASOK, SYRIZA had supported Apostolos Kalogiannis in Larissa, who came out first and in the second round gathered a percentage of 57.34%.

In the upcoming elections, PASOK wants to prove that the recent increase of its percentages by 3.7% compared to four years ago shows the dynamics that the party has.

The aim is to increase in the large urban centers where in the last two electoral contests it appeared very weak. In his favor are the mechanisms of the movement that still exist in local societies. Four years ago, PASOK had supported independent candidacies and had taken over the administration of the municipalities of Alexandroupolis (Yiannis Zamboukis), Kavala (Theodoros Mouriadis), Neapolis-Sykeon (Simos Danielidis), Pallini (Athanassios Zoutsos). The KKE also wishes to record the upward trajectory it had in the national elections. Kostas Peletidis will again be a candidate for the mayoral office in Patras which was the great victory of the party in 2019.