The \u201cHope<\/b>\u201d seems to have started evaporating along with the xylol<\/b>.\u00a0One might say this is normal, considering that the high temperatures have set in. <\/p>\n
Not normal at all, however, if one considers that her party appeared as a much-hyped anti-establishment bride<\/b> from\u2026 Russia <\/b>to shake up the Greek political landscape. If one were to look for the real reason why the party of Maria Karistianou<\/b> began to fall apart, they might find it in the fact that this woman completely distanced herself\u2014on her own initiative\u2014from the tragic role for which she became known in Greek society.<\/p>\n
In the space of just one day, three high-profile figures withdrew from the project: the expert witness in the Tempi case Vasilis Kokotsakis,<\/b> Air Force General <\/b>(ret.) Athanasios Papanikolaou, and TikToker Dimitris Savvidis<\/b> \u2014 figures who had been closely associated with the movement\u2019s inception. <\/p>\n
Karystianou <\/b>reacted in her familiar manner\u2014one marked by political ignorance, confusion, confusion, an inability to deal with reality, and staged anger. She spoke of \u201csmear campaigns,\u201d \u201cslander,\u201d and \u201cwilling accomplices\u201d<\/b> who are attempting to divide her.\u00a0The war<\/b>, she says, \u201ccontinues.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
However, these departures are not merely an organizational setback. Kokotsakis <\/b>was not just some random figure on the party\u2019s periphery. According to reports, he served as the \u201clinking figure <\/b>\u201d between the Tembi movement and the political party, taking on the task of creating and coordinating local movements in Crete\u2014a model considered \u201cexemplary\u201d for the rest of Greece as well. His departure <\/b>, therefore, is not merely symbolic. It has organizational consequences that cannot yet be fully assessed.<\/p>\n
In his letter, he denounced \u201cserious organizational shortcomings\u201d<\/b> and the absence of substantive discussion on institutional, political, and organizational issues. \u201cYou cannot preach transparency when you operate with \u2018inner circles<\/b>,\u2019\u201d he wrote, attributing to Karystianou herself \u201cthe primary political responsibility\u201d for the way the organization was run. Sources within the newly formed party explain that the acrimonious departure is directed at specific individuals\u2014particularly Maria Gratsia<\/b>. \u201cWe can\u2019t be expected to seek Gratsia\u2019s approval for everything that happens,\u201d they say.<\/p>\n
Papanikolaou <\/b>went even further<\/b>: stating that the organization \u201cis led by a group of individuals, many of whom are former Niki officials.\u201d This observation is no coincidence. Niki, the party of Dimitris Natsios,<\/b> with strong religious and nationalist characteristics, does not formally belong to the same political framework as Elpida<\/b>. In essence, however, they share the same Orban-style, pro-Putin, neo-Orthodox, and even anti-feminist narrative.<\/p>\n
And all of this is reflected in the polls with chilling precision. <\/b>According to the nationwide survey by RealPolls\/Protagon<\/b> in June, Elpida <\/b>stands at 9.4% <\/b>in voting intention, down two points from May\u2014while the projected election result stands at 11.9%. <\/b><\/p>\n
Another poll, conducted by Interview for Political,<\/b> puts the party at 5.4%,<\/b> marking the largest decline <\/b>in the survey: 67% <\/b>of citizens believe that the party\u2019s leaders lack a convincing political presence, and only 6% recognize them as competent and serious.<\/p>\n
The discrepancy <\/b>between the measurements of various companies<\/b>, ranging from 5.4% to 12.5%, <\/b>does not indicate methodological differences. This gap primarily reflects the fact that Hope for Democracy<\/b> has not yet established a political identity<\/b> in the minds of voters. <\/p>\n
And this is a very worrying sign for such a young political party<\/b>that began to build itself on the sentiment sparked in the collective consciousness by the unspeakable tragedy of Tempi<\/b> but, before the scaffolding was even properly set up, it changed course.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Both Ms. Karystianou\u2019s own most unfortunate statements, revealing shocking ignorance of political and diplomatic issues<\/b> as well as her extreme pro-Putin stances, have shown that this is a party-as-a-tool that will exploit <\/b>for unknown reasons the emotional vote<\/b> it is preparing to claim. And these are not problems that can be fixed by mimicking angry social media posts, as she herself attempted to do.<\/p>\n
It seems, then, that the transition from unspoken grief<\/b> to public anti-government <\/b>rhetoric with anti-establishment <\/b>and apolitical rhetoric, is not a prerequisite <\/b>for convincing others of her political abilities. Especially when she herself is trying by every means, likely and unlikely, to prove that she is something different from what public opinion perceives her to be.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
“Hope” seems to have started evaporating along with the wood oil. One might say that’s only natural, considering that the high temperatures have set in….<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":12974,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-12973","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-politics"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/en.tomanifesto.gr\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12973","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/en.tomanifesto.gr\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/en.tomanifesto.gr\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/en.tomanifesto.gr\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/en.tomanifesto.gr\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=12973"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/en.tomanifesto.gr\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12973\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/en.tomanifesto.gr\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/12974"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/en.tomanifesto.gr\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=12973"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/en.tomanifesto.gr\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=12973"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/en.tomanifesto.gr\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=12973"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}