For a rather closed group of his close interlocutors, the decision of Kostas Karamanlis not to run in the next election did not come as a lightning bolt. The former prime minister has been in the process of thinking since the beginning of his current parliamentary term that he is coming to the end of that journey, a full 14 years after he stepped down as president of the party, according to K. At the same time, at a stormy meeting during the 2009 internal party meetings, in the once prosperous Rigillis, he declared after leaving the presidency that “everyone who harms the party will deal with me.” Since then, three leaders have succeeded him, and Karamanlis “kept his promise”, always acting as the party’s liaison and guarantor of unity. The party discipline that he demonstrated during these years as a “soldier” was in absolute agreement with his personal party path and with the heavy name that he brought. After all, the line he said to Kyriakos Mitsotakis during their conversation last Tuesday – “I’m leaving now that the faction is strong” – largely expresses this philosophy, since Karamanlis would never want to leave the faction he led for 12 years. times of instability and intra-party unrest.

Based on the foregoing, the view that Karamanlis’ decision to withdraw from the ballot was the result of his dissatisfaction with the wiretapping case is incorrect. The thought existed before. The placement of Kostas Karamanlis in Anogia, which severed his relationship with Megaro Maximos, “accomplished without much effort”, as people in the know say, for two reasons: the first is purely a matter of the former Prime Minister’s personal point of view, and the second is of a personal nature. backdating. “Everything that is interpreted as a hint to the government is completely wrong, since Karamanlis in Anogia did not talk to the government of N.D., but only with his personal history, seeing that his parliamentary end was approaching.”

All of the above is supported by what was discussed at one and only four or four meetings of the two prime ministers in June 2021 at the Mitsotakis residence in Lycabettus. The discussion between the two men then focused on foreign policy. The former prime minister has spoken extensively about the memorandums of understanding with North Macedonia, noting two things: firstly, their sanction can wait because the neighbors do not comply with what was agreed, and secondly, that he himself would not want to be in the difficult position of voting on memorandums at the end of his parliamentary journey, thus revealing his innermost thoughts.

The former prime minister, from 2009 to 2017, essentially chose silence. However, he has given four major speeches since 2019 to the present. The first one in October 2019 at the Society for Macedonian Studies, the next one in November 2019 in London, the third one in October 2021 at the Konstantinos Karamanlis Foundation and the last one in June 2022 at Megaro Musikis. In all of them, his appeals were not to the party, but to the nation and national issues, which is interpreted as preparation for his departure.

With N.D. announced almost 95% of his ballots and the dissolution of parliament was just around the corner, the candidacy of Karamanlis had to be closed. The contact established a month ago between Karamanlis and Bratakos informed Megaro Maximos of Mr. Karamanlis’ intentions. Over the past week, the prime minister’s associates have twice tried to arrange a meeting, but without success, since, apparently, the decision of Mr. Karamanlis was taken and the meeting did not make sense immediately before the elections.

The message was received and thus a phone call was received from Mr. Mitsotakis in which Mr. Karamanlis formally announced his decision. The fact that the statement of Kostas Karamanlis begins with the word “decided” indicates a purely personal choice, without anyone’s influence. Even the time of the announcement was chosen, as people in the know say, with careful forethought. The former prime minister did not want his departure to be linked to the problem of wiretapping and thus give rise to rhetoric that could harm the party.

He kept what he said in 2009 until his last day in parliament, which Maximou appreciated. After all, Kostas Karamanlis’s statement of support for the New Democracy government and the warm response of Kyriakos Mitsotakis showed that the departure was velvet. In fact, the former prime minister is expected to take part in the prime minister’s keynote speech in Thessaloniki, where he may also deliver a brief welcome. As for the last “flavor” that some saw in his statement, namely the failure to mention the name of Kyriakos Mitsotakis, he dismisses it as “arbitrary interpretation by unsolicited interpreters.” After all, the last statement of Karamanlis as a member of the national delegation contained only one name: Konstantinos Karamanlis.