The derby in Thessaloniki
Of the three big municipalities where Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis formally expressed his party’s backing for a mayoral candidate in order to endow them with more political gravitas, the northern port city of Thessaloniki is where the attention will be focused in this Sunday’s runoff.
In the port of Piraeus, Yannis Moralis was comfortably re-elected in the first round, while in Athens, the gap between incumbent Kostas Bakoyannis and second-placed Haris Doukas, running with the backing of socialist PASOK, is so large that the result is unlikely to change even if the latter gets support from SYRIZA.
In Thessaloniki, however, the difference between the ND-backed incumbent mayor Konstantinos Zervas and his rival, Stelios Angeloudis – who is running as an independent but has informal backing from PASOK – is practically negligible at just 1.5% or 1,520 votes in favor of the former. Any predictions as to what may happen this Sunday are impossible, which is what makes this particular race so interesting. The prevailing opinion is that the result will be determined by which party achieves the strongest voter turnout.
Zervas’ chances would improve if he had the full force of New Democracy – which got 39% of the vote in the municipality of Thessaloniki in June’s parliamentary elections – rallied behind him. Despite Mitsotakis urging such undivided support, however, this may not transpire as there are serious disagreements within the party concerning Zervas and his performance as mayor.
One of the things that has been missing in this election for Thessaloniki’s mayoral office is a strong personality who is ready to lead Thessaloniki into the future, with engines at full throttle
Angeloudis, on the other hand, is banking on his rival’s waning popularity and on support from the leftists, who may vote for him not because they believe in his alternative policy proposal for the city – if he can be said to have such a thing – but mainly because they are driven by a barren and outworn anti-Mitsotakis fervor. Some – quite a few, in fact – will be the same people who voted for Zervas in the second round of the 2019 municipal elections only to spite the candidate backed by Mitsotakis at the time, Nikos Tachiaos.
At the end of the day, though, no matter which of the two candidates wins next Sunday, it doesn’t look like anything will change very much. One of the things that has been missing in this election for Thessaloniki’s mayoral office is a strong personality who is ready to lead Thessaloniki into the future, with engines at full throttle. There are just too many reasons why they do not compare to Yiannis Boutaris, or even other mayors who served before him, like Vassilis Papageorgopoulos, Dinos Kosmopoulos and Theocharis Manavis.
We cannot expect miracles either.
The city, however, needs a strong leadership that has a vision, the ability to convey that vision, the clout with the government to make sure that when they call the prime minister or other important officials their call will be answered, and the determination to clash with vested interests holding the city back. Most importantly, it needs a leader who will inspire the citizens.
