Editorial: Battle for the political centre

The latest political polling data confirm a basic principle of post-junta Greek politics: The battle is fought and won in the political centre.

It is patently obvious that the comfortable lead of Kyriakos Mitsotakis and his party is attributable mainly to that segment of the electorate.

The centre today has made its choices and its inability to attract centrist voters has weakened other political parties.

With parties prone to populism as well as easy or salvation-style solutions, they do not realise that Greece essentially remains a country of centrists.

All the achievements of the post-dictatorship era (after 1974) – expanded democracy, growth, and the climbing of social classes – created an environment with prospects and capabilities and a country that for 20 years has been at the core of the eurozone.

Despite a host of problems, the decade-long economic crisis did not extinguish hope or jeopardise Greece’s position.

Because the centre of the political spectrum remains the most hegemonic and seminal in terms of political representation, it holds the key to the political stage and to the predominant positions that develop on it.

Imagine a political stage without a centre, a political arena with only extremes and clashes, without syntheses but only polemics.

The centre also guarantees the functioning of institutions and transcends divisions.

It is the ground upon which the next general election will be decided.

It will be decided not on the basis of who most simplistically can humour the political centre, but rather on the basis of who appears more mature and trustworthy in addressing it.

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