File photo. [Intime News]
Common sense tends to be the best guide when it comes to making decisions. Even though political decisions are determined by many different parameters – from ideology to personal agendas – common sense is still the best compass. There is no ideological bent to this observation; it is obvious and it applies across the political spectrum.
In the center right, the strategy of appealing to the center was based on common sense and brought quantifiable gains to the ruling New Democracy party.
No one – not even Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis’ sworn rivals, both inside and outside the party – can deny that the overture to the center worked. It was amply demonstrated, after all, by the party’s victory with 40% of the votes in two national elections.
Tapping into the appeal of top cadres who had moved to ND from center-left PASOK and who enjoyed widespread public support (such as Kyriakos Pierrakakis and Michalis Chrysochoidis, among others) was also part of that strategy. It may not have been the way that former prime minister Kostas Karamanlis chose to go, but his big victories in 2004 and 2007 were also based on an opening to what was described at the time the “middle ground.”
