Fifty-two years after its founding by Constantine Karamanlis and 15 regular conferences, the New Democracy opens the proceedings of the 16th one tonight in Athens.

It is the top body of each party as it usually plays a key role and acts as a bridge between what has gone before and the new course that is being charted each time, sending a specific central political message – in the case of the New Democracy and with the emergence of a new political Committee.

Each of the 15 regular congresses has left its own stamp on the course of a party that has taken the helm of the country’s governance repeatedly, has been at the forefront of all major national choices and has managed to build the most solid party base over time compared to the other parties in Greece.

1st Ordinary Congress, Halkidiki, April 1979

A year and a half after the 1977 elections in which the New Democracy renewed the popular mandate it had received in 1974 in the first election after the restoration of democracy, Constantine Karamanlis decided to organise the 1st Ordinary Congress of the party he had founded, which went down in history for two main reasons:

The first is that “radical liberalism” was adopted as an ideology, which recognizes the freedom of the market with regulatory intervention by the state for reasons of social justice. The second was the infamous “Volvi Movement”, the first internal party challenge to leadership choices of the time, but not of Constantine Karamanlis. The Movement included executives such as Angelos Moschonas, George Sourlas, Vangelis Meimarakis and Philip Tavris.

2nd Ordinary Congress, February 1986, Thessaloniki

Seven years had passed since the 1st Congress and the fourth in a row, father of the current Prime Minister, Constantine Mitsotakis had been at the helm of the New Democracy Party since 1984. Coming from the Centre, the Cretan politician put his own stamp on the party’s opening to the liberal sector with a series of statutory changes in the operation of party organisations and a new Central Committee in which the then president of the ONNED, Vangelis Meimarakis, and his predecessor, Vassilis Michaloliakos, were elected to the top two positions.

3rd Ordinary Congress, April 1994, Halkidiki

Eight years later and after a period of government and a change of president after its defeat in the 1993 elections, the New Democracy Party reached its 3rd Ordinary Congress with Miliadis Evert now being the fifth in a row leader of the party. “Forward for a peaceful revolution” was the central slogan of the Congress, which attempted to shift the centre-right party more to the right, at the same time as the Political Spring, the party created by Antonis Samaras, was on the political map.

4th Ordinary Congress, March 1997, Athens

At that congress, for the first time, the president of the party was elected, as until then the statutes provided for election by the party’s Central Committee. This was Kostas Karamanlis, nephew of the founder of the New Democracy Party and the longest serving leader to date. The Congress was held at the Peace and Friendship Stadium and the election of the new president apparently overshadowed everything else. Miltiades Evert and Giorgos Souflias were considered favourites, while Vyron Polydoras and Kostas Karamanlis were also candidates, who eventually made it through to the second round.

There he prevailed over George Souflias with 69.16% to 30.84% and became the youngest age-elected president of the New Democracy party since its foundation, from a broad electoral body of delegates made up of MPs, MEPs and elected members from party organisations, local government and the highest trade union bodies.

5th Ordinary Congress, March 2001, Athens

Two extraordinary congresses took place, the “Principles and Positions” one in March 1997, where the “middle ground” strategy was adopted, and the one in June 2000, after the defeat of the elections in April of that year by a margin of about 70,000 votes from PASOK.

The 5th Ordinary Congress was remembered for the return of Giorgos Souflias to ND, who had been expelled in 1997 along with Stefanos Manos, Andreas Andrianopoulos, Petros Tatoulis and Nikos Kakkalos for dissenting in a vote in the Parliament on a bill concerning PPOs. “George, welcome home,” was the infamous phrase used by Kostas Karamanlis to welcome the Sarakatsan politician.

6th Ordinary Congress, July 2004, Athens

On 7 March 2004, ND has achieved a triumphant victory with 45% and after eleven years has returned to power with Kostas Karamanlis as Prime Minister. The 6th Congress sent the message that the Southwest expresses the modern conception of the Social Centre. The person who stood out was undoubtedly Vangelis Meimarakis, as he was elected as the first secretary of the ND by the members of the Central Committee. The Congress also coincided with the 30th anniversary of the founding of the New Democracy and had an anniversary character.

7th Ordinary Congress, July 2007, Athens

The 7th Congress was held with an eye on the upcoming polls as it took place shortly before the announcement of the national elections in September. It had a strong element of rallying, but with no particular interest beyond the narrowly partisan proceedings.

8th Ordinary Congress, June 2010, Athens

Before ND reached its 8th Congress, the extraordinary one of November 2009 intervened, in which it was decided to elect the president from the grassroots, a process that took place a few weeks later, with Anthony Samaras and Dora Bakoyannis as candidates, with the former eventually winning. At the Ordinary Congress, social liberalism was formulated as the party’s ideology at a key juncture, as the country’s ten-year economic crisis adventure began a few months later.

9th Ordinary Congress, June 2013, Athens

ND is in government with Antonis Samaras as Prime Minister, with the country fighting a tough battle with its lenders. With the central slogan “New Democracy – New Greece”, the party attempted to send a strong message to society.

10th Ordinary Congress, April 2016, Athens

In January 2016, Kyriakos Mitsotakis was elected president of ND and began a long period of political domination by the centre-right and himself personally. In April of the same year, the 10th Congress was held under the slogan “Oxygen for Greece” and significant changes to the statutes, such as holding a congress every year and setting a term of office for the party’s president.

11th Ordinary Congress, December 2017, Athens

Polls showed ND galloping towards governing the country. The central slogan of the Congress was “Ready to change Greece”, which was confirmed in practice. At the Conference, ND sent a message of political change to society, while in his speech Kyriakos Mitsotakis made reference to the contribution of all his predecessors to the leadership of the party.

12th Ordinary Conference, December 2018, Athens

The time is simply running down for the return of ND to the helm of the country. The Congress has the central slogan “Greece we can” and at its core is the government programme, which a few months later has been implemented at a particularly rapid pace. “The victory of ND will be the victory of a bright Greece.”

ND is emerging from a decade of crisis ready to open its big wings again and embrace Greek society. To unite all Greeks, just as it did in 1974, 1990, 2004 and June 2012,” Kyriakos Mitsotakis stressed in his speech and the countdown for the defeat of the spokesmen of populism and the extremes has begun.

13th Ordinary Congress, November 2019, Athens

New Democracy has been in government since July and its 13th Ordinary Congress is being held in November with the central slogan “The future begins now” signalling its determination to move quickly towards the country’s effective exit from the decade-long economic crisis. The Congress is held with 1,766 delegates, 5,639 observers and 13 guest speakers, with half of the delegates belonging to the 25-44 age group.

14th Ordinary Congress, May 2022, Athens

With the New Democracy Party already three years in government, the 14th Ordinary Congress put the party on track for the national elections that would follow next year. Vangelis Meimarakis was chairman of the Organising Committee and there was a new “brave” shift in the body of delegates to even younger age groups, especially the 40-something generation.

2,500 delegates, 6.000 observers and 270 speakers in six thematic sections sent a resounding message about the dominance of the Southwest in the political scene, something that was confirmed in practice a year later in the double election of 2023 and its victory with 41% and self-reliance for a second four-year term.

15th Ordinary Congress, April 2024, Athens

The Congress was held at the historic Zappeion Palace, where the party’s founder signed the agreement on Greece’s accession to the then EEC. The presence in Athens and the speech by the president of the European Commission, Orsula von der Leyen, undoubtedly stood out.

The conference was held in an anniversary year, 50 years after the restoration of democracy and the founding of the New Democracy. Former prime ministers Kostas Karamanlis and Antonis Samaras were present on the first day of the conference, while the president of the Republic of Cyprus, Nikos Christodoulides, was among the speakers. As in all recent congresses, a video was shown with important milestones in the 50-year course of the New Democracy and with characteristic phrases of all the former party presidents.

16th Ordinary Congress, May 2026, Athens

The 16th Ordinary Congress of the New Democracy opens its work this afternoon and will conclude on Sunday with the speech of Kyriakos Mitsotakis and the election of the members of the new Political Committee.

The 16th Ordinary Congress of the New Democracy opens its work this afternoon and will conclude on Sunday with the speech of Kyriakos Mitsotakis and the election of the members of the new Political Committee. With time already running down for the next national elections and the Prime Minister talking about the Greece of 2030, at this Congress it is clear that the ND will seek to send its message to society with the aim of a third consecutive electoral victory and a four-year term.

The prime minister, speaking at the conference in Thessaloniki last Saturday, spoke of a congress of unity, unity and victory. “The road has been laid out, the compass points only forward, the time is now. Let’s go to rewrite history together for a strong Greece,” he said. The President of the Organizing Committee, Theodoros Roussopoulos, will declare the opening of the proceedings and after a video will be shown, Kyriakos Mitsotakis will speak.

Saturday will be followed by speeches by the general director of the New Democracy party, Giannis Smyrlis,the president of the EPP, Manfred Weber, the secretary of the ND party’s Central Committee, Maximos Charakopoulos, and the vice-presidents, Kostis Hadjidakis and Adonis Georgiades, the chairman of the Constitution Revision Committee, Euripides Stylianides, party officials such as the press spokesperson Alexandra Sdoukou, the president of ONNED, Orpheus Georgiou, and the director of Digital Communication of the Prime Minister, Nikos Romanos. On Saturday, all ministers will also speak and parallel thematic sessions will be held.

On Sunday, the secretary of the IP, Stelios Kontadakis, European Commissioner Apostolos Tzitzikostas, EPP secretary general Dolores Montserrat, and the president of the conference’s organising committee, Theodoros Roussopoulos, will speak. The President of the European Parliament, Roberta Metsola, and the former President of the European Commission, Jean-Claude Juncker, will also address the conference.

The conference will close with a speech by the Prime Minister of Greece, KYriakos Mitsotakis.