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The former ministers George Voulgarakis and Theodoros Roussopoulos, who were part of the government of Kostas Karamanlis, are excluded from the list of participants in the regular congress of the opposition party New Democracy although according to the Constitutive Act of New Democracy all former ministers are ex officio congressmen. Mr. Roussopoulos announced in advance his withdrawal from policy and said he has no intention to participate but Mr. Voulgarakis opposed firmly against this act of formal exit from New Democracy.

The eighth congress of the party starts tomorrow afternoon at the closed field of Faliro Stadium and ends on Sunday. The congress will begin with a speech by the leader Antonis Samaras. The expectations of all party members are for a touch of new ideology and that the party will manage to recover and oraganize a new team of leaders who will be able to formulate and present the messages of Mr. Samaras. The three goals that the Congressmen have set are expected to rise to clashes among them because of the two totally different concepts for their achievement.

Antonis Samaras hopes that the party will be able to open and forward its messages after the big crash, which it has faced in the parliamentary elections in the autumn. Already seven months the party has failed to recover and regain back lost voters.

New Democracy MP Aris Spiliotopoulos described it as “the Congress of survival”. “We do not agree with the policy over the past seven months. We do not give forgiveness to anyone. People made the mistake to believe the promises of PASOK and vote against us at the last elections,” said Mr. Spiliotopoulos. Asked whether Kostas Karamanlis will speak or not, Spiliotopoulos stressed that the former prime minister himself must choose the time and place to give statements and that “there is nothing to be afraid of. I think that he will silence many people when speaking up. He will speak frankly and boldly.”

Meanwhile, the Congress of the New Democracy party is expected to have the brilliance of American political conventions. Yellow and orange strokes will merge with the blue color of the party and a film about the history of the party with excerpts for each one of its leaders from its inception until today will be shown on a big screen. 4500 Congressmen and 500 observers are expected to attend the 8^th Congress of New Democracy tomorrow.