New Democracy will chose its new leader on November 29 and more than 600 thousand party members from all over the country will vote. A deadline of 10 o 15 days will be given to all who want to sign up for the elections. If a second election is needed, it will take place on December 6. Until then Kostas Karamanlis will remain the leader of the party but right after the elections he will leave the position and become a normal parliament member of the opposition. The congress on November 7 will gather in order to change the statute of the party so that ordinary members can chose a leader.
Today is the deadline for applying for the leadership position. Right after the parliament elections crash on October 4, Thessaloniki governor Panayotis Psomiadis said he will run for chairman of New Democracy. He admitted he does not have many chances of winning. Former foreign minister Dora Bakoyanni announced she will also run for chairwoman. She also said that the party is not in a need of new ideology, because its ideology is modern social liberalism. Two days ago former minister of health Dimitris Avramopoulos also joined the race and he said that he is for progressive liberalism. It is expected that former minister of culture Andonis Samaras will also run for the post until the end of the day.
At 11:30AM on Monday is also the first session of New Democracy’s parliament group, on which a chairman must be chosen. The present leader of the party right now Kostas Karamanlis will give a speech during this session.