Turkey rapprochement sparks rift in Greece’s ruling party

One recent flashpoint was legislation that legalized same-sex marriage, voted through last February. A significant proportion of the ruling MPs didn’t support the law; the most prominent opponent was Samaras, who argued that “same-sex marriage does not constitute a human right.”

While New Democracy achieved a resounding victory in June 2023 national elections, it significantly underperformed a year later in the European election, with polls showing it wouldn’t be able to form a majority government if elections were held today.

Given those declining fortunes, Samaras has teamed up with another ex-prime minister, Kostas Karamanlis, to criticize Mitsotakis. While Karamanlis is markedly milder in tone, both are proving determined critics of both Mitsotakis’ ideological direction and his policy on Turkey.

“The expulsion of Samaras was a bold step by Mitsotakis, signaling that intra-party dissent must remain within certain limits and that his grip on New Democracy is solid, allowing him to confront a senior party figure such as the former PM,” said Wolfango Piccoli, co-founder of risk analysis company Teneo.

Piccoli added that Misotakis’ challenge will now be “to avoid being torn between his innate liberal stance and the need to appease ND’s right-wing faction, which has been emboldened by Donald Trump’s reelection.”

Loukas Tsoukalis, professor at Sciences Po, Paris and president of Greece’s ELIAMEP think tank, said it made sense to try to tackle the core strategic disputes between Greece and Turkey, and condemned attempts to score political points off the rapprochement.

“The fact that there are no airspace violations and no warships against each other is a huge success and a great economic benefit. But you have to have substantive discussions. You can’t keep things under the rug indefinitely,” he said.

“I don’t think the majority of Greeks are opposed to a serious dialogue with Turkey that may one day lead to some compromises,” he added. “In Greece, there is a minority that has turned patriotism into a profession and is making a lot of noise, while those on the other side are afraid to take a public stand.”