Message received after a stormy meeting

Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis reportedly heard the message sent by the 37 MPs who spoke last Wednesday at the tumultuous meeting of the parliamentary group of the ruling New Democracy party.

The meeting, held the day after ND’s disappointing result in the June 9 European Parliament elections, was the most difficult in years and certainly the most “noisy” during the term of Mitsotakis, who had the privilege unique in being uncontested for so long, something no predecessor had accomplished.

The meeting focused on the ideological orientation of the party, relations between deputies and ministers, as well as daily issues.

In comments to Kathimerini, a government source said that after the parliamentary group meeting, “we are not where we were” because “the messages have been received.”

The Prime Minister is said to have listened attentively to the MPs, even the most critical ones, and to have admitted at the end of the meeting that he had “heard things that I did not know”.

Among the issues discussed at the meeting, which are among those to which Mitsotakis pays particular attention, is the gap between the parliamentary group and the government. “Everything that is going well in the planning of the government project is sometimes not synchronized with what is going well in society,” another source added.

As a result, major reshuffles within the party secretariat are expected in July, while more frequent meetings will be held with MPs to ensure everyone is on the same page.

Mitsotakis also realized that he would need to add a little water to his wine. A concrete example is the unpopular legislation regarding liberal professions, to which, according to Kathimerini, certain changes will be made from September.

He was also made aware of the impact that the same-sex marriage legislation had on the Conservative Party’s electoral base. The feeling that existed within the government when the law was passed, that “in a short time no one will remember this issue”, has not been confirmed.

The question of the presidential election and President Katerina Sakellaropoulou was also put at the center of the debates, with some MPs claiming that it is “completely foreign” to the culture of New Democracy.