The government, New Democracy as well as Kyriakos Mitsotakis personally, are moving at the pace of local government elections, in view of the first round of elections in regions and municipalities next Sunday. The blue faction aims for 13+3, given the official declaration of support for persons in all regions of the country with party choices everywhere, except for Crete where the current strong player, Stavros Arnaoutakis from PASOK, is supported, as well as in the municipalities of Athens ( Kostas Bakoyannis), of Thessaloniki (Konstantinos Zervas) and of Piraeus (Yannis Moralis).

In the last meters of the race, a blue “sprint” is recorded and the government and party officials are requested to be mobilized to promote the choices of the governing party. Already, Mitsotakis has directly asked the blue mechanism to put aside “personal disagreements or bitterness” and to make all effort in unison towards the goal of confirming the political dominance of the ND through a “blue” electoral map.

“We claim the positions of regional governors so that posts are taken up by people who can share the government’s goals and serve tomorrow the development plans that we have presented to the local communities,” Mitsotakis said to his parliamentary group last week.

The big “bets”

And as of today, he himself is coming forward to support candidates, which will inevitably bring even more difficulties and possibly upheavals for those who do not achieve a clear victory with 43% on the 8th October.

For New Democracy, Attica (the most populous region of the country) and the Peloponnese (which carries additional symbolism for the faction) are two of the biggest “bets”. Today, Mitsotakis will visit the neighborhoods of Vyronas together with region candidate Nikos Hardalias. In Attica, New Democracy candidates are expected to clear the “game” from the first Sunday against Giorgos Ioakeimidis and Giorgos Sgouros, in order to avoid the difficulties of the second round.

In addition, in the afternoon, Mitsotakis will be in Corinth to (again) support the regional governor candidate Dimitris Ptochos, who is the choice of the president of the faction, has been warmly supported all this time by the former prime minister Antonis Samaras and is constantly raising the pace rivaling the dynamics and recognition of Petros Tatoulis.

Central and Western Macedonia and Thessaloniki

The continuation will be given by Mitsotakis the day after tomorrow, when he will visit northern Greece, trying to combine the promotion of a “positive” agenda to the citizens with the support of candidates for the self-governing elections. In Western Macedonia, the current regional governor Giorgos Kasapidis is supported, who has a party renegade opposite him, Giorgos Amanatidis (now deleted from the ND) but also a joint candidacy of SYRIZA and PASOK, Georgia Zebiliadou.

In Central Macedonia, Apostolos Tzitzikostas has eight opponents, but in New Democracy they believe that the race will end next Sunday. However, Mitsotakis will meet in Thessaloniki on Wednesday with the regional governor as well as with the mayor Konstantinos Zervas. For the municipality of Thessaloniki, there was limited mobilization of party cadres, hence Mitsotakis is quick to set the tone. In Thessaloniki, events are planned at the “Agia Sophia” station of the Thessaloniki Metro and at the former premises of the “FIX” brewery.

The tours

In recent days, ministers, MPs and party officials have been crisscrossing the country, mainly in an attempt to forestall any threat of the breakup of a party front. For Mitsotakis, the tours will remain a primary task, in order for him to communicate the government’s agenda (positive initiatives, projects that have been tendered and others that are on track for implementation, etc.).

At the same time, the “openings” to society are also ongoing by the leader of the main opposition Stefanos Kasselakis, who is being scrutinized by the government and New Democracy but with the order from party central only for targeted responses to the criticism of SYRIZA and not for involvement in confrontations with the new leadership of the party, let alone commenting on internal SYRIZA party processes.

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