New Democracy, the center-right party in power for the last five years, is celebrating its 50th anniversary on Friday with a street party outside the neo-classical building at 18, Rigillis Street in central Athens, where the conservative party’s headquarters was based for decades.
Members and supporters of New Democracy are invited to participate in an early evening event aimed to convey the party’s unity, in the form of a street celebration.
October 4, 1974, is the official founding day for ND, coming a few months after the fall of a military junta that ruled Greece from April 1967 to July 1974. A national unity government, led by veteran politician and prime minister Konstantinos Karamanlis, the founder of New Democracy, was formed.
Fast forward to October 2024 and despite the party’s dominance in the Greece’s political scene – ND and its president, Kyriakos Mitsotakis, have convincingly won back-to-back general elections in 2019 and 2023 – “grumbling” has been aired, both publicly and behind closed doors, of the party pivoting away from more conservative values and ideology, as espoused by Kostantinos Karamanlis, to the political center.
Amongst those who have distanced themselves from the party in recent years are former ND prime ministers Antonis Samaras and Kostas Karamanlis, the nephew and namesake of ND’s founder. Many political pundits have directly referred to dissatisfaction by the two former premiers.
On Monday, Kyriakos Mitsotakis personally invited both of his predecessors to the celebration, signaling an effort to bridge any differences and to promote unity within the party.
Kostas Karamanlis, the longest-serving ND president, is expected to make an appearance, albeit brief.
Samaras, on the other hand, is less likely to attend, though he has kept his intentions undisclosed, leaving open the possibility of showing up to send a message of unity.
