The wrong path
New Democracy paid the political price for the reforms pushed by the conservative-led coalition under Antonis Samaras. Nevertheless, those reforms were in line with the ideological identity of a big, liberal, pro-Europe party.
Following the 2014 European Parliament elections, which the conservative party lost by a small margin, reforms were put on the back burner in light of the coming Greek parliamentary elections.
As it happened, the change of course was barely convincing. Enemies of reform lined up behind the reactionary pledges of Alexis Tsipras’s SYRIZA, which went on to win the ballot.
By lapsing into populism, New Democracy lost even more voters and it basically betrayed its previous efforts to keep the debt-wracked country on its feet.
A similar strategy now will have the same results.
