Tuesday’s cabinet meeting, unless it was an exercise in deception, gave a clear signal of Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis’ intentions as to the timing of the next election: It will take place in early 2027, preferably in spring, as he has repeatedly said.
In opening the meeting, Mitsotakis said the government has important business to take care of in the second half of the year, probably seeking to turn his ministers’ attention to the tasks at hand and away from speculation over an early election this autumn.
The priorities involved two major infrastructure projects, the completion of the repairs in the rail network damaged in massive floods in 2023 and an accelerated timeline for the road overpass around the city of Thessaloniki. There is also the transfer of urban planning offices from local government to the state agency overseeing the national property register, the completion of special city planning regulations, completion of the digital transfer of court records and the public consultation of a national secondary education certificate.
These “priorities” may not appear enough to determine the timing of the election, but there was more: More payments are to come the farmers” way in the form of subsidies. Mitsotakis noted that the subsidies scandal, which long dominated the news cycle, not only failed to put a damper to the disbursement of legal subsidies, but that those already paid, €617.5 million to 530,000 farmers, exceed the initial target by a €100 million. Moreover, total subsidy payments will reach €1 billion after a new round of disbursements this autumn.
