{"id":4729,"date":"2026-05-09T08:49:00","date_gmt":"2026-05-09T05:49:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/en.tomanifesto.gr\/?p=4729"},"modified":"2026-05-09T08:49:00","modified_gmt":"2026-05-09T05:49:00","slug":"new-democracy-last-pre-conference-in-thessaloniki-on-national-issues-mitsotakis-and-dendias-in-the-spotlight-video","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/en.tomanifesto.gr\/?p=4729","title":{"rendered":"New Democracy: last pre-conference in Thessaloniki on national issues &#8211; Mitsotakis and Dendias in the spotlight (video)"},"content":{"rendered":"<p data-start=\"597\" data-end=\"828\"> The ND party&#8217;s sixth and final pre-conference is taking place today in Thessaloniki, a week before the party&#8217;s conference at the Metropolitan Expo, which is seen as a key event for the start of the informal election period. <\/p>\n<p data-start=\"830\" data-end=\"1111\">Although the original plan called for the proceedings to begin in Thessaloniki, the curtain finally falls at Pavilion 10 of the <strong data-start=\"958\" data-end=\"965\">DETH<\/strong>.  Let&#8217;s not forget that for the ruling party, the pre-conferences functioned mainly as a mechanism to activate the party base and contact with local organisations. <\/p>\n<p data-start=\"1113\" data-end=\"1435\">Today&#8217;s (9\/5) focus will be on <strong data-start=\"1162\" data-end=\"1181\">national issues<\/strong> and the country&#8217;s defense strategy. Specifically, <strong data-start=\"1221\" data-end=\"1244\">Kyriakos Mitsotakis<\/strong> is expected to emphasize Greece&#8217;s international alliances, the strengthening of its deterrent power and moves he will argue strengthen the country&#8217;s position in the region. <\/p>\n<p data-start=\"1437\" data-end=\"1862\">The prime minister is expected to refer to the <b>renewal<\/b> of the <b>Greek-French defense agreement<\/b>, arms programs, and the <strong data-start=\"1573\" data-end=\"1589\">Agenda 2030<\/strong> for the <strong data-start=\"1598\" data-end=\"1618\">Armed Forces<\/strong>. At the same time, it will also attempt to respond to the pressures that the government is under from the right, especially in Northern Greece, where parties such as <strong data-start=\"1786\" data-end=\"1803\">Hellenic Solution<\/strong>, <strong data-start=\"1807\" data-end=\"1815\">NIKI<\/strong> and the <strong data-start=\"1835\" data-end=\"1861\">Afroditis Latinoopoulou<\/strong> are being strengthened. <\/p>\n<p data-start=\"1864\" data-end=\"2241\">Thessaloniki is a crucial political field for New Democracy. Despite the high 2023 national polling figures, the picture in Thessaloniki&#8217;s first district has troubled the ruling party, which wants to regain strength in the region. In the Maximou building, they believe that the major projects that are progressing in the capital city can serve as a political argument against attrition. <\/p>\n<p data-start=\"2243\" data-end=\"2488\"> Of particular interest is the ministerial panel, which includes <strong data-start=\"2325\" data-end=\"2342\">Nikos Dendias<\/strong>, <strong data-start=\"2346\" data-end=\"2370\">Giorgos Gerapetritis<\/strong> and <strong data-start=\"2377\" data-end=\"2400\">Stavros Papastavrou<\/strong>, while the EU Transport Commissioner will also intervene.\u0395., <strong data-start=\"2461\" data-end=\"2487\">Apostolos Tzitzikostas<\/strong>. <\/p>\n<p data-start=\"2490\" data-end=\"2812\">The eyes are mainly on the defence minister and whether he will choose to respond to the barbs left in recent days by <strong data-start=\"2622\" data-end=\"2643\">Adonis Georgiades<\/strong>. Recall that the health minister, after the parliamentary group meeting, told SKAI 100.3 that there are ministers who &#8220;are in an airplane and spin the universe&#8221;. <\/p>\n<p data-start=\"2814\" data-end=\"3118\"> Of course, <strong data-start=\"2816\" data-end=\"2833\">Nikos Dendias<\/strong> has not publicly responded at this time. However, his associates point out that his trip to Portugal was planned long ago with a clear national character. They also recall that the meeting of the Parliamentary Group was originally set for 30 April. <\/p>\n<figure>\n<div class=\"embed-responsive\">   <\/div>\n<\/figure>\n<p data-start=\"3120\" data-end=\"3397\"> In his statement, the Secretary of Defense is expected to outline the next steps for <strong data-start=\"3214\" data-end=\"3234\">Armed Forces<\/strong> and the implementation of the <strong data-start=\"3256\" data-end=\"3273\">Agenda 2030<\/strong>. However, it is not excluded that there will be indirect references to the internal party climate that has developed in recent days. <\/p>\n<p data-start=\"3399\" data-end=\"3671\">Even if there is no answer today, the government camp considers it certain that <strong data-start=\"3506\" data-end=\"3522\">Nikos Dendias&#8217;s speech<\/strong> at next week&#8217;s conference will be of particular political importance as it will reflect his personal stamp within New Democracy. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>\n    The sixth and last pre-conference of the New Democracy Party is taking place today in Thessaloniki, a week before the party&#8217;s congress in &#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":4730,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4729","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\/4729","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=4729"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/en.tomanifesto.gr\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4729\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/en.tomanifesto.gr\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/4730"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/en.tomanifesto.gr\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=4729"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/en.tomanifesto.gr\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=4729"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/en.tomanifesto.gr\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=4729"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}