By Penelope Galliou

Yesterday’s parliamentary premiere for the political leaders, the new political period that is opening up ahead, had, apart from conflicts and confrontations, messages from both sides about the attitude that the leaders are predicted to take with each other, as a result of the new political relationships that have emerged recently.

And the government may consider that his opposition tactics and presence PASOK and its re-elected leader, Nikos Androulakis, is not expected to have significant differences and intersections in relation to his previous term, however the messages sent by Kyriakos Mitsotakis were clear.

His internal party twist SYRIZA and its collapsing – for the time being – in the polls, combined with the strengthening shown by the measurements for PASOK, after the internal party elections of Harilaou Trikoupis, de facto place the party of Nikos Androulakis in the role of the official opposition, even though institutionally and parliamentaryly , SYRIZA still holds this position.

With only two moves Kyriakos Mitsotakis, during the debate in Parliament at the level of political leaders, he also made his own intentions clear. He and his government now consider PASOK as the main political and opposition opponent of ND.

Strong semiotics, in this direction, was the repeated movement of the prime minister, as soon as he finished his prologue as well as his second part in the pre-day debate on civil protection and the fire fighting season, to leave the room and head to the office in Parliament, for the duration of the speech of the president of the SYRIZA parliamentary group, Nikos Pappas, and to come back for the speech of Nikos Androulakis.

An initiative that sent messages both to the seats of SYRIZA and PASOK. The absence of Kyriakos Mitsotakis captured the image that SYRIZA now presents, not only to the public and its supporters, but also to their political opponents, showing that being a “typical” official opposition has, in fact, lost this role.

In addition, the departure of Mr. Mitsotakis was also interpreted as an aversion to the person of Nikos Pappas, whom he does not want – as he stated – to recognize as his institutional interlocutor in the Parliament, expressing with this attitude, the disparagement of a politician who burdens him the decision of the Special Court on its handling of the television license case.

“I do not recognize as a representative of the official opposition a politician convicted by 13-0 in the special court. I protect the state, I will not greet, entertain and negotiate with him. When the official opposition party finds a leader and partisanship, I will be here to have a discussion. Do not wonder if I leave, this will be the tactic I will follow until SYRIZA elects a permanent leader” said the prime minister about Nikos Pappain his deuteronomy.

On the contrary, Kyriakos Mitsotakis, with his return to the government seats seconds after Nikos Androulakis took the stage, classified the president of PASOK in an upgraded political role compared to him.

“We cannot ignore the new political situation that is taking shape”, government officials commented, referring to the new political dipole that is in its infancy, bringing back memories of the memorandums that led to the collapse of PASOK at the time and the emergence of SYRIZA as a government party.