Greek conservative pledges to restore economic stability

ATHENS, Greece – A bellicose former defense minister who took over Greece’s New Democracy party almost by accident, conservative chief Vangelis Meimarakis has pulled the party back into the spotlight on pledges of restoring economic stability. 

Less then seven months after New Democracy lost a confrontation with radical left party Syriza by 8.5 percentage points under a different leader, the 61-year-old lawyer has helped the party effectively pull even.

“We have no more room for experiments,” Meimarakis said on Saturday. “Stability is needed and the immediate implementation of changes and reforms.”

Though the gains are largely due to an internal Syriza revolt over the new unpopular European Union bailout signed by former prime minister Alexis Tsipras, Meimarakis has been praised as a unifying force by fellow conservatives.

A self-styled man of the people, Meimarakis became New Democracy’s leader when former chair Antonis Samaras abruptly resigned in July.

The party was supposed to pick a successor through a congress but with snap elections called for September 20, it decided to leave him in temporary control.

The son of a right-wing lawmaker, Meimarakis – who calls himself a “left-wing conservative” – has been elected to parliament without fail since 1989 and served as New Democracy’s influential party secretary for five years.

He is also considered one of Greece’s toughest politicians and a wily, in-your-face speaker who enjoys needling his opponents by frequently stepping outside political decorum.

He has called 41-year-old Tsipras a “little liar” who “destroyed” the country by wasting months in fractious talks with European Union and International Monetary Fund creditors, imposing capital controls and nearly taking the country out of the eurozone.

“I never want you to be prime minister again,” he told Tsipras during their one-on-one televised debate this month.

“You brought destruction to the country… we never had so many ills in such a small period of time.”

Nevertheless, Meimarakis says he will invite Tsipras to form a unity government and a multi-party team to negotiate with Greece’s creditors on how to lift the country out of crisis.

Years earlier, when a newspaper linked him to a money laundering case, Meimarakis reportedly threatened to “take off his pants” to deal with its editor, and to “mess up” a rival lawmaker investigating another case involving submarine purchases.

‘Not going to change’

A father of two daughters, Meimarakis says his style strikes a chord with people who want to see “normal” politicians.

“This is who I am, and people don’t have to vote for me if they don’t want to,” Meimarakis said in a recent televised interview.

“I’m not going to change, I will remain impulsive, because I believe I must deal with problems with a human touch,” he told Mega channel, adding that as defence minister, he continued to ride a motorcycle despite the advice of his security detail.

Also known by the moniker “Vangelas” (big Vangelis), the tall, thickly-moustachioed Meimarakis held parliament in line for nearly three years as speaker of the chamber under the 2012-2015 New Democracy administration when unpopular austerity measures had to be adopted.

On the Greek political scene, he is also remembered for heading New Democracy’s youth wing in the mid-1980s, a period when brawls between rival party members were common.

On Meimarakis’s orders, New Democracy in July and August backed the new EU bailout in successive parliamentary votes, helping Tsipras weather the opposition of around a fifth of his own lawmakers.

But the conservative chief has signalled he will oppose an upcoming overhaul of tax privileges for farmers — a core group of conservative voters – that Greece must approve in October in return for bailout funds.

“The farmers have given what they can to the national effort… It is unthinkable to accept even tougher measures,” he told an audience near the agricultural hub of Volos on September 5.

Meimarakis has also indicated his party wants to see heightened border vigilance to stem the influx of migrants not entitled to asylum protection.

“The borders must be better protected and Greece should not send the message that ‘it’s good over here, come over’,” he told Star channel. – John Hadoulis, Agence France-Presse/Rappler.com