By Penelope Galliou

The “grand finale” of the pre-election period for the ND is being written in the Constitution today, with the prime minister making his final central pre-election speech in Syntagma Square, with the Parliament in the background and giving the “slogan” for the citizens’ attendance at the pollson Sunday.

An invitation – a challenge for the upcoming polls, as participation in the electoral process is one of the most important and biggest bets of the upcoming European elections for the parties’ plans and their expectations.

Pollsters and analysts diagnose a great reluctance of voters to answer about their intentions regarding the exercise of their right to vote, pushing experts to estimates that may raise abstention above 50%, surpassing the negative record of the 2009 European elections, when abstention reached 47.4%.

One of the explanations being considered for the trend recorded for the upcoming elections, is the laxity of the European election ballot in combination with the high temperatures that are expected to prevail this weekend as well. People of a younger age but also older, non-politicized, will not find it difficult to prefer the beaches to going to the polls to vote, given that the European election ballots do not elect a government or local rulers, which they consider to be more relevant to them, from the “distant” leadership of Brussels. Although, of course, the stakes of the ballot box set by the political leaders, they do not consider that the European elections have a direct impact on the governance of the country, with the government having a fresh – only one year – mandate and a comfortable parliamentary majority.

At the same time, for some other citizens, “election fatigue” may have occurred due to the repeated electoral contests in the last year, as two national elections (May-June) and two rounds of local elections were held last October.

The expectations do not seem to be revived by the figures from the postal vote, which also show a reduced interest and of the more than 202,000 registered, just over 153,000 come from the interior of the country.

In fact, while Attica is the largest region incorporating more than half of the electorate, participation is relatively small, with just over 46,000 registered.

Kyriakos Mitsotakis at every opportunity during his election campaign called and continues to call the voters of N.D. not to be complacent about the results of the polls and rush to the ballot box, asking for their mobilization against abstention and against this certainty that “the comfortable lead of the ND gives it a certain victory”.

However, the prime minister has repeatedly and emphatically emphasized that on Sunday the polls that will be opened will be empty and a fight is needed from the top officials to the ordinary voter to cast even the last vote.

“So, no complacency, no easy and inexpensive whining. I understand, no government does everything right. And mistakes are made and mistakes are made. And no government can ever satisfy them all, in everything. It is impossible to do this,” he said recently, adding, however, that the government has been completely consistent with its pre-election commitments this eleven months and is running at a fast pace to implement a reform program for which the citizens gave their authorization. He also admitted that they have made mistakes which he recognizes and corrects and called on the citizens to exorcise abstinence, so let’s exorcise abstinence, let’s see the big picture and on Sunday night celebrate another great victory for New Democracy, so to continue on this path, steadily, ever closer to Europe” he characteristically said.