European elections this weekend. Approximately 835 Greeks from Australia and New Zealand have expressed interest in voting by mail. The number is very small.
Sunday’s vote is of particular interest due to two expatriate candidates: Thanasis Tsouhantaris, running for New Democracy, and Katerina Priftaki, running for SYRIZA. Both have been in Greece for weeks, actively campaigning.
The latest survey by Opinion Poll for ACTION 24 shows New Democracy with a 14.7-point lead in the projected results for the European Elections on June 9.
According to the poll, New Democracy’s estimated percentage is 28.8 per cent, while SYRIZA is at 14.1 per cent.
PASOK follows in third place with 10.7 per cent. In fourth place is Hellenic Solution with 7.8 per cent, followed by KKE at 6.9 per cent, Plefsi at 3.2 per cent, and Niki at 2.9 per cent.
MeRA25 is below the electoral threshold of 3 per cent, at 2.3 per cent, while Nea Aristera stands at 2.4 per cent.
ESTIMATED RESULTS
New Democracy: 33 per cent
SYRIZA: 16.2 per cent
PASOK: 12.3 per cent
Hellenic Solution: 9 per cent
KKE: 8 per cent
Plefsi Eleftherias: 3.7 per cent
Niki: 3.4 per cent
MeRA25: 2.6 per cent
Nea Aristera: 2.7 per cent
MITSOTAKIS: COST OF THESSALY RECONSTRUCTION TO EXCEED 3.5 BILLION EUROS
The total cost of reconstructing Thessaly after the “Daniel” and “Elias” storms will exceed 3.5 billion euros, Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis stated. He chaired a meeting focused on the interventions being made to restore the damage caused by these storms, held at the Thessaly Regional Council Chamber. The meeting was also attended by members of the government and local government officials from Thessaly.
The Prime Minister emphasised that it would not have been easy to find these funds under different circumstances, but today “the combination of resources from the State Budget and significant additional absorption of European funds makes us optimistic that we will be able to bear the cost of this reconstruction and rebuild what was destroyed with much better quality than before.”
STEFANOS KASSELAKIS: “I INVITE YOU TO MARK THE END OF ARROGANCE”
“When you are relentlessly attacked every day by the rulers of a rotten system, this is the reason you endure it all: the connection with you, the embrace with people, bending down and listening to the citizen. Because this is what happened with the professional politicians of the country: they forgot to listen. They forgot to listen to the only ones they are obliged to listen to—the Greek people,” said SYRIZA-PS President Stefanos Kasselakis, beginning his speech in Agios Titos Square in Heraklion, just days before the European Elections on June 9.
Referring to the double elections in May and June of 2023 and that Crete turned blue, Kasselakis stressed, “We must all correct this mistake now. Because it is not just the wrong colour; it represents a wrong way of life. It is a life that waits for pre-election crumbs to survive,” adding that it is “a half-life that the Prime Minister measures in half a kilo of feta, half a kilo of bread, half a liter of gasoline, hoping to deceive someone that the expensive is cheap.”
“It is a half-life that is a strategic choice of ND, to funnel everything to a few. It is a half-life that we do not deserve,” said Kasselakis, who called it “a matter of honour for the democratic people of Crete to return our island to its democratic colours,” referring to the island’s strong ties with Andreas Papandreou.
ANDROULAKIS: WE WILL EXCEED BOTH THE EUROPEAN AND NATIONAL ELECTIONS
In the Live News program on Mega Channel, PASOK-KINAL President Nikos Androulakis spoke in the afternoon, addressing the stakes of the European election ballot.
“New Democracy has already shown that it fears the elections. When it sets the bar at the European elections of 2019 and not the electoral contest of 2023, it does so because it knows that its party’s percentages will be much lower,” said Androulakis, expressing optimism about his party’s success.
“Even with this bar set by New Democracy, we will be far above both the European and national elections, and we aspire to be a force that will oppose the unaccountability, arrogance, and detachment of the Prime Minister and his government from the major problems of society,” he said.
He underlined that the vote in the European elections reflects European balances and commented on the absence of European issues from the public discourse of Mitsotakis and Kasselakis.
“It suits Mitsotakis to say that by voting for him, he strengthens von der Leyen, who did nothing and had an absolutely failed tenure. It suits Kasselakis to say to vote for him to support the GUE (European United Left) with its forty MEPs with their obsessions against the European Union and the common defense and security tools, which our country needs so much against Turkey. They do not want this discussion, so they do not have it,” said Androulakis.
Asked about Kasselakis’ peculiar asset declaration, Androulakis stated, “Kasselakis has a talent. He presents his obligations as concessions. He goes to the army, and a fifteen-day show is set up as if it were a concession. It was his obligation to go. For the asset declaration, he set up another show yesterday in Thessaloniki with an excel sheet, again as if it were a concession, giving us a gift to announce something he should have announced months ago.”
He accused the SYRIZA president of helping Mitsotakis, “because,” as he said, “five days before the ballot, we are not discussing the enormous issues of society, the housing crisis, energy costs, and inflation.”
“I am trying to show the Greek people that I am useful and we are useful. That is why my time is focused on usefulness and not on communication. I believe that when the citizen realises that I am and we are the most useful, I will become Prime Minister and the democratic faction will govern again,” he added.
MARINAKIS: WHAT STEFANOS KASSELAKIS DID WAS A SHOW AND A FARCE
“The last thing that concerns citizens ahead of the European elections is a dispute over personal finances. However, it is an institutional obligation for all who have it to close this issue immediately upon taking office, or within a reasonable period to avoid it never being opened in reality,” said government spokesman Pavlos Marinakis in an interview on the main news bulletin of ERT.
“There is a very luxurious life with helicopters, which, I repeat, we are not among the political forces that criminalise someone’s life, which seems to cost a lot of money per month. They do not match. The incomes then end up either in deposits or in some investment products. However, there are also debts. These are a balance,” he said.
KOUTSOUMPAS: “OUR VOTE TO BECOME A STRONG SLAP AGAINST ANTI-POPULAR POLICIES”
“There is hope, and this hope is kept alive by the action within the people, by the KKE… We can, on Sunday, with our vote, create a result that will make an impact not only in our country but throughout Europe,” emphasised the General Secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Greece, Dimitris Koutsoumpas, in his central speech in Thessaloniki, on the pedestrian street of Agia Sofia Square.
“We can, with a strong support for the KKE, send a pan-European message of struggle, hope, and optimism. Our vote can become a strong slap against the anti-popular policies, against the EU, against the ND government, and the other parties of capital. And this can only happen in one way, with a vote for the KKE,” concluded the KKE General Secretary.
