By Antonis Anzoletou

In October 1992, Antonis Samaras resigned from his parliamentary seat and left New Democracy.

He had already been removed from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs since April.

The conditions in the political landscape were very different. Konstantinos Mitsotakis had in front of him a very strong official opposition with Andreas Papandreou gaining the power he had in the 80s.

Proof, that in the early elections of 1993, PASOK won with a percentage of 46.88% with over 3.2 million citizens returning it to power. Record number of votes for the post-revolutionary annals.

The story with Antonis Samaras repeats itself, but now there is no strong opponent to the government.

The rise of PASOK is clearly calculated, but the political landscape is still “quicksand”.

What does this mean? The collapse of SYRIZA and 17.8% of the 2023 elections ultimately did the blue faction no good.

The rallying of New Democracy both in 2019 and a year and a half ago and the fact that it twice reached 40% was largely created by the concern and fear that SYRIZA would get back into things.

Now the polarization that was caused between the two parties from 2012 to 2019 does not exist.

This environment combined with the not good result of the European elections created a different context for the revival of the Samaras feud with the Mitsotakis family, much more favorable than what happened 32 years ago.

Not that the former prime minister would not express his disagreements in relation to national issues in other circumstances. He always did it in high tones too. Just with the precision to squeeze the lower and middle classes, and with the “complacency” caused by the lack of threat to power, from the summer of 2023 onwards, the government’s defenses to contain its more conservative-right-wing public are less strong.

Kyriakos Mitsotakis “weighed” things and saw that if he did not respond to the attacks of Antonis Samaras along the way he would have bigger problems.

He showed his fist, as all signs indicated that the collision could not be avoided. He wanted to have the initiative of the movements. And the budget battle may not seem so difficult, but the election of the president of the Republic at the beginning of the new year will be the big “crash test”.

Is there a risk in choosing the prime minister? Possibly yes, given that Trump’s victory could trigger a new wave of far-right reinforcements.

The opposition monitors the developments and the “storms” that Piraeus suddenly acquired. SYRIZA still has a long way to go until it shows its new leadership and finds its footing.

It is estimated that the recovery, if achieved, will take a long time and will be done in special conditions. At this stage, he is very little concerned with what happens to the majority.

In PASOK, with what is happening in the blue faction, they have one more reason to be optimistic and to propose, as Kostas Tsoukalas mentioned to SKAI, that they are the “island of stability” in the political scene.

With this narrative they will seek to further reduce the gap with New Democracy. They believe that in the government there are centrifugal forces that must be exploited.