With elections expected to take place by next spring and tensions with Turkey on the rise, Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis sees relations with Greece’s neighbor to the East as an issue where he has an advantage compared to his political opponents. Thus, he intends to keep national security at the center of his preelection campaign.
In doing so he will have to navigate a fine line between the need for realism and moderation on the one hand, and toughness in the face of Turkish revisionism, on the other.
Mitsotakis has faced criticism, mainly from former conservative prime minister Antonis Samaras, but even from within his own New Democracy party, over his “calm waters” approach to Ankara.
At the same time, he views security and foreign affairs as his strengths, hence he believes tensions could politically benefit his ruling party, and for that reason he intends to take the issue of more effectively dealing with Ankara, to the polls.
In the upcoming weeks and months Turkey’s planned maritime parks outside its territorial waters – seen by Athens as part of a broader sequence of moves through which Ankara has built maritime claims and challenges since the 1970s – as well as the renewed push to build an electricity interconnector cable linking Greece and Cyprus, will test Greek-Turkish relations.
