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Kostas Karamanlis opened New Democracy’s extraordinary congress, taking place today and tomorrow in Athens, with a long statement. The former Prime Minister of Greece will appeal to the three leader-candidates to “avoid contradiction with terms from the past” and will express his discontent with the development of the intra-party conflict. Next on the tribune will speak the three candidate successors- Dora Bakoyanni, Andonis Samaras and Panaiotis Psomiadis.

Dimitris Avramopoulos, who was also a runner for the leader position but withdrew from the battle, wanted to speak after the three candidates as well, but had to sign-up in a list together with the rest of the party members who wish to present a speech. The first day of the congress will end with voting on the party’s edict changes that will verify that elections will take place among all party members.

The tomorrow’s session will begin with delegates’ speeches. Most of them have already expressed their dissatisfaction that the edict changes will be discussed after the voting, as agreed with the organizational commission headed by the former parliament chairman Dimitris Siufas.

According to the congress statistics, 4459 delegates are involved in the work of the congress, 1367 from Athens, 344 from Thessaloniki, 2680 form the rest of Greece and 68 from abroad. The congress session will be opened at 11 AM with a speech by the head of the organizational commission Dimitris Siufas. An introduction follows by the central committee secretary Lefteris Zagoritis, after which Kostas Karamanlis will take over. Dora Bakoyanni and Andonis Samaras’s speeches are anticipated with great interest since they will oppose each other directly for the first time.