By Dora Antoniou

The government is preparing for a counterattack on the everyday front immediately after the holidays, as this is where the weak point and the source of citizens’ dissatisfaction is located. The first opinion polls after the completion of the budget debate in the Parliament brought smiles, as the N.D. appears even marginally enhanced. The upward trend is the one element that they hold in the Maximos Palace, while the second important thing that they hold from the polls is that the wide gap is maintained from the second PASOK. For the prime minister’s staff, this is evaluated as a key indication that the citizens do not see an alternative convincing political proposal, which they would reward even in polls.

The change in opinion polls, even if it is fragile, is considered to be the first sign that the government is regaining its pace and the initiative of movements and by choosing a bipartisan orientation, both to the conservative audience and to the centrist voters, it is winning terrain.
The Minister of State, Makis Voridisestimated yesterday that the opinion polls confirm that the government came out of the budget process strengthened.

In the measures announced by the prime minister closing the debate on the budget and especially in the announcements about the officers, the mood of approaching the most conservative, traditional audience of the ruling party. And two days later, with the amendment to suspend the funding of the “Spartans”, the government made an opening to the centrist political audience. It seems that, despite the suggestions he received after the European elections for a more rightward turn of the ND, Kyriakos Mitsotakis insists on a line of simultaneous opening to both sides of the political spectrum, as this was the choice that brought results in the past, gave the ruling party a strong hold on the political scene.

A government official estimates that the image that is being formed in the space of the center-left helps the government in many ways at the given moment. On the one hand, clear predominance of PASOK in the role of official opposition it evoked memories of the opposition’s historic bipartisanship, favoring the rallying of an older, traditional political audience.

At the same time, however, the image of consolidation of PASOK in a percentage that it is not directly threatening for the government and the ND, combined with the fragmentation of SYRIZA, gives the advantage to the ND. and to the government to appear as guarantors of stability in a time of multifaceted challenges and threats.

It is a strategic choice, given these facts, for the prime minister to constantly bring back the argument of political and fiscal stability in our country, in contrast to what is happening in the wider region and also to the crises faced by major European powers.

Within this image, however, it emerges as a persistent point of concern the pessimism that seems to be possessed by a large part of the citizens regarding the direction in which the country is moving and the prospects of their personal situation. The reading done by government officials is that it should to intensify the effort on the daily front. And there is expected to be a focus, with issues related to housing at the forefront, where the launch of a series of housing policy programs seeks to give breathing space to households, the health sector and security.