The ballots for the New Democracy are nearly ready across the country, and their main training trio, Thanasis Nezis, Yiannis Bratakos and Pavlos Marinakis, are awaiting final approval from Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis himself. The three bulletins worked for at least six months, painstakingly preparing for their compilation, looking through hundreds of resumes and looking through all the candidates.

There will be 419 “blue” candidates in the country. Of these, 156 are active deputies, and 15 candidates will be included in the state list. Well, the sample is about 248 people across Greece. When selecting candidates, the state official explains to “K”, there was a basic principle that initially applied to everyone horizontally and was rule No. 1, regardless of the profession and origin of the candidate. This rule concerned what the local community said about the character and morality of the candidate. In fact, for all 248 “reports on the spot” were carried out by the leaders of Piraeus, who sketched out the profile of the person who would be chosen to vote. The study even included a thorough social media search of each candidate to draw a comprehensive conclusion about their face and public image. The ultimate goal is to form ballots across the country of “pure and serious leaders who embody the principles of the party,” the same sources say.

After the main rule No. 1, a partial selection of candidates was carried out for six main categories of citizens who should coexist harmoniously. After all, the preparation of ballots, the same sources say, is a puzzle in which you need to insert every detail correctly so that the correct result comes out in the end.

The first category concerns old candidates. In other words, officials who were elected in the previous elections and were not elected, and who will again be on the lists. “This decision testifies to the continuity of the party” and “a smooth transition from one era to another,” says a government official who describes this category as the “backbone” of the ballots.

The second group concerns managers with local displacement. In New Democracy and Maximos, they followed a different policy from 2019, focusing more on local leaders who have influence in the society they live in. Professionals such as doctors, lawyers, professors and journalists, as well as citizens who have been counted at the self-government level, are filling out New Democracy ballots. Particular emphasis was placed on municipalities, where New Democracy failed in the last 2019 elections. “In these municipalities, we were looking for elected councilors who would strengthen New Democracy ballots at the local level,” a government official told K.

In Athens A, out of 17 candidates, nine are women and eight are men.

The third category that has been highlighted are young people. The effort began with the selection of the secretary himself, Pavlos Marinakis, aged 35, and continued on the electoral rolls. At this point, N.D. there are 40 candidates under the age of 40 across the country, with the critical decade of 40-50 being particularly well represented. The effort was not easy, since, on the one hand, N.D. he has problematic relations with younger ages, on the other hand, the selection of young managers should have not only the DAP and UNED party emblems as a passport, but also a career path, albeit a short one. After all, the time when it was enough just to pass through the party of young people has passed.

The fourth criterion for selecting candidates was gender, as Maximus sought to recruit women. This is another “splinter” of N.D. which starts at the base and is reflected at the top of the government, in a cabinet where there were very few women. Maximus’ staff wanted more women on the ballot this time, even above the “mandatory quota” of 40%. This seems to be achieved in many cases, with the Athens Center being a typical case, where there are more women, since out of 17 candidates, 9 are women and 8 are men.

The fifth category of choice is inclusion. This is expressed in the participation of leaders from socially disabled groups such as Dimitra Arapoglu in the south, a deaf woman, a mother of many children, as well as gypsies such as Ismini Lazaropoulou, secretary of the Panhellenic Educational Association of Greek Roma. “Our ballots are a mirror of society, and we wanted it to contain normal people who primarily fight everyday life,” sources in the party tell K.

In the sixth category there is… a little PASOK. The logic of expansion, also strong in Maximos, is present on the ballots, but in moderation. Of the 248 candidates, about 20 have been “transferred” from PASOK, ranging from top executives like Michalis Chrysochoidis and Kyriakos Pierrakakis to smaller executives like those announced last week: Apostolos Spyropoulos and Eleftheria Ftaklakis, former head of politics archipelago. PASOK – KINAL. The quota is cautious because in Piraeus and Maximos they really want expansion, but in a way that appeases those who fear the “genetic change” of the New Democracy. In this context, combined with their professional and social careers, many leaders from her party base were used, such as heads of departments, members of the Political Committee, and former prefectural presidents. A typical example is Thassos Gaitanis, a full-blooded party official who made a professional career.

Finally, a small but important category is non-parliamentary ministers who will “hunt” for the cross. In addition to Mr. Pierrakakis (Athens A) and Mr. Chrysochoidis (West Sector of Athens) mentioned above, this category also includes Maria Siregela (West Athens), Domna Michailidou (Athens Piraeus), Stelios Petsas and Sophia Zacharaki (East Attica) , Nikos Papathanasis (North sector of Athens) and Takis Theodorikakos (South sector of Athens).