Photo: zougla.gr
The "cooperative" of the Greece’s right has long been a three-story one, despite the efforts of the leader of New Democracy to convince that his party enjoys the trust of centrists and liberal voters.
With the disaffiliation of Dora Bakoyannis, who set up her Democratic Alliance last November, she took some deputies from the electorate of New Democracy. The polls that showed increased rates of trust in the LAOS party made its leader announce in Parliament that he was ready to rule and even for two terms. "The first government of LAOS will be sworn in the Athens bishop’s residence and the second - in the Hagia Sophia in Constantinople," said Georgios Karatzaferis and amazed the audience, while the 11 MPs from his party applauded him enthusiastically.
A week ago, the Greek society was following for hours the 'thriller' about the New Democracy deputy Anastasios Liaskos who was proclaimed a member of LAOS by its leader. That same afternoon, however, the deputy appeared on a party meeting of New Democracy and launched a "war" of communications between the two parties. The incident ended when Anastasios Liaskos said his loyalty to the right and apologized to Karatzaferis.
After all this and the statements that "there is no possibility of cooperation with parties that voted for the Memorandum with the Troika" by New Democracy, Antonis Samaras, however, met with Georgios Karatzaferis late last night. According to some Greek media, the negotiations about it lasted two days and the leader of LAOS held discussions with the personal adviser and trustee of Antonis Samaras, Theodoros Vardas. The meeting was arranged during the fourth conversation between the two men.
Commentators believe that the leaders of the two rightist parties have reached the common conclusion that the right "cooperative" has too many cracks to be able to withstand minor shocks at a time of total civil disaffection with politicians. A huge role played and Gallup, the results of which showed Antonis Samaras a low wave of disgruntled right-wing voters to LAOS.
According to a report published in zougla.gr, the two men met in a central city restaurant last night. Georgios Karatzaferis arrived first and minutes later arrived Antonis Samaras. Two names were mainly discussed. These of the deputy Anastasios Liaskos and Kyriakos Mitsotakis – the brother of Dora Bakoyannis, who did not follow his sister in her new party and prefered to stay in New Democracy. According to some rumours, however, he was preparing to leave it and join the camp of LAOS. This was the main question of Samaras: Is the Kyriakos Mitsotakis joining to LAOS part of an organized opportunity for cooperation or even merger of the party with the Democratic Alliance of Dora Bakoyannis?
Zougla.gr sources say that the conversation between the two leaders lasted until shortly after midnight. Samaras and Karatzaferis greeted with a smile, pointedly noted the web edition.
But even if the allegations about the positive developments of the meeting prove, any rapprochement between Antonis Samaras and Dora Bakoyannis seems impossible at least for the moment. The secret telegrams, which leaked to Wikileaks, sparked a new round between the two politicians, as it became clear that Antonis Samaras was the USA’s chosen leader of New Democracy after the withdrawal of Kostas Karamanlis even in 2008. It becomes clear from the telegram that the U.S. ambassador flair showed him that the return of Antonis Samaras in politics from the political wilderness is not just a recurrence of a politician but a very well-organized process in order Samaras to take the leadership of New Democracy and then to become a prime minister. Antonis Samaras is defined in the telegrams as more conservative than his opponents, and especially Dora Bakoyannis, and according to the ambassador's comments on the party leadership "Samaras is hoping for support from the Karamanlis’ "block". According to the telegrams, Antonis Samaras in the quality of a simple MEP has had secret meetings at the U.S. Embassy in Athens in 2008, during which he expressed his disagreement with the policy of the government of Kostas Karamanlis for rapprochement with Moscow through the purchase of Russian tanks. He even committed to deliver the U.S. position on all who had to hear it.
The findings did not surprise Dora Bakoyannis, who "showed" in her predecessor in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and mentor of the former Prime Minister, Petros Molyviatis, the man who helped Antonis Samaras behind the scenes in the party elections. Commenting on the telegrams, the former Foreign Minister said that she later was aware of the existence of backroom games in favour of Samaras without the knowledge of the then Prime Minister Kostas Karamanlis. She said he had no competencies to hold secret negotiations with U.S. diplomats and if he had a different position than the government’s he had to express it in public.