By Penelope Galliou

The prime minister is having their maiden meeting today, Kyriakos Mitsotakisand the new president of SYRIZA, Stefanos Kasselakiswho will cross the threshold of the Parliament and at 10 in the morning, they will be face to face for the first time, in the Prime Minister’s office, in the Parliament House.

An institutional and formal meeting, as characterized by both party staffs, but with enormous political interest, as it is estimated that the climate that will prevail during the meeting of the two leaders, will also be a first crash test for the political relationship that will develop in the next period.

The question that will certainly not be answered with the footage and the moments of the television crews and photojournalists, will concern the climate that will prevail behind the closed doors of the prime minister’s office, regarding whether the two men will manage to cultivate those conditions , which will shape a new environment in such meetings and perhaps “demystify” the veil that usually shadows and weighs down such meetings, which were used in the past only in extreme circumstances of national interest.

Essentially, it is a meeting to get to know the two political leaders during which the two men are expected to communicate their messages to the other side. According to government sources, Kyriakos Mitsotakis – as he has already done with his public statements and interviews – is expected to point out to the new president of SYRIZA the need for the political confrontation to be conducted in purely political terms, arguing and comparing politicians, without toxicity and mud war, which the SYRIZA government faced in the past.

“He is a new person, I personally like him, I happened to know him from the past as well. Between us, I never imagined that he would end up in SYRIZA, but that is another discussion. I respect and honor him as a statesman, because he was elected with democratic procedures” Kyriakos Mitsotakis had commented in his interview on Alpha TV, after the election of Stefanos Kasselakis to the leadership of SYRIZA, although in the same interview he had questioned the political speech of the official opposition leader as well as the partners he chose to have in his leadership team, such as Pavlos Polakis and Nikos Pappas.

During today’s meeting, the prime minister is expected to convey to the new leader of SYRIZA that he and the entire government staff are open to realistic and thorough proposals for issues concerning society such as the improvement of everyday life, and should be a priority of all politicians of local forces, far from populism and impractical “solutions”.

It is the truth, however, that the expectations for an institutional and possibly efficient meeting were dampened by the position of Stefanos Kasselakis a few hours before the meeting of the two leaders at the K.O. meeting. of SYRIZA, during which the new president returned to the usual rhetoric of the official opposition with high tones and sharp expressions against the government and its policies and with references to “regime”, giving the impression that he “picked up the thread” from where the had left Alexis Tsipras before resigning from the leadership of SYRIZA.

In any case, today’s meeting between Kyriakos Mitsotakis and Stefanos Kasselakis will be the starting point of a cycle of contacts, as the meetings of the new president of SYRIZA with Nikos Androulakis and Dimitris Koutsoubas will also follow. All in all, however, all the meetings are expected to reflect the political profile of Stefanos Kasselakis vis-a-vis his political opponents and also vis-à-vis all those who accused him of “apolitical” or “parapolitical” behavior until recently.