Last month, Kyriakos Mitsotakis, a Harvard-trained former banker, was elected prime minister of Greece. His victory — and that of his party, New Democracy — was widely greeted with a sigh of relief. The neo-Nazi Golden Dawn had been removed from Parliament, and the leftist Syriza from government. For some, the adults were back in charge.
But there is a problem with the consensus: It isn’t true.
New Democracy, far from being a moderate, liberal force, seems to be a right-wing party with pronounced authoritarian tendencies. And Mr. Mitsotakis, who promised to unite the country, is following divisive and polarizing policies. The return of order is proving to be the return of the hard right.
You don’t have to search far for evidence. Mr. Mitsotakis’s first month in charge provided plenty of examples of the new prime minister’s antidemocratic instincts. Three crucial regulatory agencies — protecting the country’s finances, work force and environment — have been effectively dissolved as part of a bill, recently passed by Parliament, to restructure government. A new institution, grandly called the Presidency of Government, has been created exclusively to support Mr. Mitsotakis. And the state broadcaster has been taken into his control, along with the intelligence services. This is not just a different approach to administrative efficiency. It looks like a purposeful concentration of power in the prime minister’s office.
For Mr. Mitsotakis, hypocrisy is meat and drink. During the campaign, he railed against the historic agreement that settled the dispute between Greece and Northern Macedonia, only to accept it fully once in power. The son of a former prime minister from one of the country’s most powerful political dynasties, he condemns nepotism — but appointed one nephew as chief of staff, while another is the mayor of Athens. And both he and his wife, a businesswoman whose name appears in the Paradise Papers, a huge inventory of tax evaders, have been implicated in scandals.
