Learning from past mistakes
The conservative New Democracy party suffered a heavy defeat in Sunday’s elections and if, as a party, it wants to take itself and have others take it seriously, it needs to take a long, hard look in the mirror and acknowledge the mistakes it made that led to this defeat. In a few weeks, New Democracy will be holding an extraordinary party conference in order to elect a new chief to replace the outgoing Costas Karamanlis, and it would be a huge mistake if the party allowed the process to degenerate, as it has done in the past, into nothing more than a beauty pageant or a quest for someone who will help the party save face overnight. What ND lacked was a clear political character, ways to attract dynamic decision-makers and mechanisms to forge concise policies. What the party now needs to do, therefore, is sit down and talk about where the future of the center-right lies and only after agreeing on the party’s direction, to discuss who would be most capable to lead it.
