in.gr
New Democracy already has two deputies less in Parliament. Recent days’ events will be the main topic of tomorrow's meeting of the parliamentary group. MP Lefteris Avgenakis was excluded from the party on Tuesday because of his statement that the newly formed party of Dora Bakoyannis will be able to enter the Parliament and that the situation in the Greek right wing is quite unstable. In his speech in the Parliament yesterday MP George Kondoyanis accused New Democracy that it refuses to support the government even in its most trivial decisions, giving priority to the party interests. So, he put himself outside the party which has decided to fully oppose the ruling.
New Democracy defined the new political formation of the former contestant for the leadership and former Minister Dora Bakoyannis as a ‘new mutiny’. The two members’ disaffiliation gave Antonis Samaras the opportunity to imply that this is organized plan in which Dora Bakoyannis and the circle around her act as ‘crutches’ of the ruling PASOK party. Not few are those who comment that Dora Bakoyannis wants to attract to her party ten deputies, which, according to the parliamentary rules, authorizes her to make a parliamentary group. Two former deputies of New Democracy are already members of Democratic Alliance - Kostas Kiltidis and Christ Markoyanakis who had left the party several months ago.
According to information from New Democracy, Antonis Samaras will call on tomorrow the deputies who have "direct relations" with Dora Bakoyannis to present their intentions. "Those who agree with us will stay, but those who don’t - will leave,” this will be his message according to the people from his narrow circle. They also commented that "this is an opportunity to settle things. Those who wish to leave the party let them do it. Those who have already left it have to submit their mandates. They are cowards."
The yesterday's decision of MP George Kondoyanis to leave the party did not surprise New Democracy as his intentions were known. According to close associates of Antonis Samaras, Dora Bakoyannis lies behind this ‘new mutiny’, who, they believe, organized a plan to prevent the possibility of New Democracy leader becoming prime minister. Antonis Samaras launched this attack by saying that "now I understand why Mr. Papandreou seeks ‘crutches’ in other places. They are not many but very responsive. They showed out several days ago and they don’t hide now."
According to some sources, at least four other deputies are trying to disaffiliate and join the Democratic Alliance of Dora Bakoyannis that was founded last Sunday. These are Elsa Papadimitriou, Kostas Karagounis, whose father was among the founders of the new party, Michalis Bekiris and Athanasios Giannopoulos. Last night Antonis Samaras met separately with Athanasios Giannopoulos and Simos Kedikoglou but they said when leaving the party headquarters that they did not intend to leave New Democracy.
The term ‘new mutiny’ is a clear attempt of New Democracy to recall the events of 1965 when, after the mutiny organized by members of the then Union of centrists on the initiative of Dora Bakoyannis’ father – Konstantinos Mitsotakis, the government of Gerogios Papandreou – grandfather of today's prime minister, falls. The conflict between Antonis Samaras and the Mitsotakis dates back to 1993, when they considered him guilty for the collapse of the government of Konstantinos Mitsotakis. Then the today leader of New Democracy left the party and founded his own party shortly afterwards, which was called Political Spring. Although the party managed to become a parliamentary force it was suppressed several years later.
After 8 years spent in political isolation Kostas Karamanlis invited again Antonis Samaras in New Democracy in 2007 and appointed him as Minister of Culture. After the heavy loss of the last year's parliamentary elections, Karamanlis resigned and both the old acquaintances and opponents Dora Bakoyannis and Antonis Samaras ran for the leadership. As opposed to initial expectations, he won the party elections. Dora Bakoyannis stated that she will stay in the party despite her personal loss. In fact, she forced the party leadership disaffiliate with her few months later after her positive vote on the Memorandum of economic support between Greece and the International Monetary Fund, the European Central Bank and the European Commission, opposing the party course.
MPs from the narrow circle of Kostas Karamanlis supported Antonis Samaras shortly before the meeting, emphasizing that "New Democracy is our home. We support the party." These associates of the former Prime Minister recalled the statement he had made on the eve of the party elections, namely that "I will not allow anyone to refute the new party leadership, regardless of the election outcome."