The question is not rhetorical, but real. With small — logical — digressions, three years after taking office as prime minister, Kyriakos Mitsotakis demonstrates “unprecedented resilience” across all dimensions in all qualitative indicators, still safely ahead of his main rival Alexis Tsipras.

The latest Pulse poll is typical. On questions of who is best suited to the post of prime minister, who best expresses the – critical – centrist space and who can best handle the energy crisis, Mr Mitsotakis leads them all by a clear margin. And if the first fitness question has a history, and the current prime minister is always in the lead, then the answer to other important questions is not at all obvious. Suffering Greek society shows it has more confidence in Mr. Mitsotakis in managing the energy crisis with 34% vs. only 16% choose Mr. Tsipras.

The question easily arises: what makes Mr. Mitsotakis dominate three years later? “K” asked two experts in the field, Panos Koliastasis, a PhD in political science from Queen Mary University of London and a lecturer at the Univ. Peloponnese, and Eftichis Vardoulakis, Strategy and Communications Consultant, to comment.

Mr. Coliastassis emphasizes four pillars in his analysis. The first thing he mentions in “K” is that the prime minister, from the beginning of his term, adopts a more “presidential model of government”, which was first observed in Tony Blair’s England and then appeared, with variations, in other countries such as like Germany and Italy, but also in Scandinavia. “Even the symbolic relocation of the cabinet meeting from parliament to Maximos Palace is indicative of a shift towards a more presidential model,” says Mr Coliastassis, stressing that the shift symbolically and effectively strengthens the prime minister. “In recent years, the percentage of undecideds who vote for a person, and not for a party, has especially increased,” he notes.

The second element is that the prime minister has an “aggressive” model of communication with a daily, no exaggeration, presence. This tactic is based on very frequent interviews of his predecessors, speeches in parliament and a constant presence on social networks. “It is characteristic that in the 30 days before the 2019 elections, only 45 posts were made on his personal accounts. This trend continued unabated as there were 887 posts in the next 24 months, about 37 per month. According to Mr Koliastasis, the prime minister has been campaigning non-stop since the day after the election, which helps him save his capital.

The third element is the sequence of words and deeds, which is the prime minister’s central priority. Mr. Koliastasis points out that the slogan “we said it, we did it” has already been used as the government’s slogan since the first months of the presidency, which shows that “Mr. Mitsotakis wants to base his political capital on trust.”

Even centrist voters respond that Mr. Mitsotakis represents the region best, with 35%, compared to 16% for Mr. Tsipras.

Finally, the fourth element that the professor points to is that the prime minister limits responsibility and ultimately assumes it. It has done this in every government failure, chief among which were last year’s fires and the trapping of citizens in this year’s torrential snowfall. “Mr. Mitsotakis does not hesitate to apologize, and this, on the one hand, removes public discontent to a certain extent, and on the other hand, removes arguments from the opposition,” he explains. He even recalls that he did something similar with the Thessaloniki lockdown in 2020, to which he admitted that “we were late.”

A different interpretation of Mr. Mitsotakis’ poll results is given by Mr. Yutihis Vardoulakis. The first reason is that ND and Prime “started from the right”. They were elected on the basis of “promises made”, he says, based mainly on tax cuts, investment and new jobs, which are actually coming true. In addition, before even working in the government, he managed to cope with two major crises. On Evros and in the first cycle of the pandemic, the assessment was positive, and this significantly strengthened the prime minister at the beginning of his term, creating additional political capital.

The second pillar, according to Mr. Vardoulakis, is ongoing crisis management per se. “Despite any mistakes made, the main picture that the polls show is that Mr. Mitsotakis can handle them better than his competitors,” he says, adding that a large percentage of Greek citizens, which clearly exceeds the percentage N. D. – is aware of the exogenous nature of these judgments, which creates an appropriate “tolerance”.

The third reason is that Mr. Mitsotakis, through his policy throughout his tenure, denied the phobias that existed in certain social groups that were the privileged audience of SYRIZA. “For example, civil servants who were concerned saw a small increase in income, while the economically weaker sections who relied on government assistance continued to receive benefits and subsidies,” says Mr. Vardoulakis, explaining in this way how the ND . he still has an influx of voters from SYRIZA.

The fourth reason is that the government, in some key areas, must present work that supports the government’s overall position. Digitization, public works, reducing unemployment, and arming the country, for example, are areas where the world acknowledges that steps forward have been taken. Plus, of course, the focus on tourism, which creates euphoria in a large part of the economy associated with it.

Finally, the fifth reason, according to Mr. Vardoulakis, is how the opposition works. “The high tones and intensity he uses don’t work,” he explains, as “there are problems, of course, but the social conditions are not at all the same as at the beginning of the last decade, when SYRIZA followed the same tactics.” “SYRIZA is constantly talking to herself, and it is difficult for her to talk to an audience outside of her,” says Mr. Vardoulakis. “However, there are signs of wear and tear and so any mistake from now on could have more consequences.”