The impending changes are causing nervousness

In the city of Nafplio, where he is spending his Christmas vacation, Samaras is putting the final touches to the reshuffle of the «shadow ND government».

Talking to journalists on the night of the budget, he announced that the changes will come with the new year. The exact time will be calculated in conjunction with the desired communicative effect. However, he made clear that it will be substantial and will change the operating structure of the leadership setup, as well as the faces.
 
He “sees” elections in 2011

Samaras’ goal is to create a fighting team as he regards elections in 2011 as a certainty. Also, he wants to show that ND has efficient staff and give chances of promotion to more members. Moreover, through these changes he will mark his persistence against the memorandum and the patriotic face of the party as he is gradually bringing up the national issues.

Initially, Samaras will homogenize the leading team, which until now has been showing symptoms of personal rivalries and misunderstandings, and will establish morning coffee in the new offices of the party. He will also abolish the party secretariat positions that overlap with the respective parliamentary areas.

In this context, he will reunite the Secretariat for Policy Planning and Programing, which will have Evripidis Stylianidis at the helm.

It is almost certain that he will make changes to the communications team in a more collaborative direction, especially if Panos Panagiotopoulos leaves the operation to take over the unified foreign and defense sector, according to a proposal being discussed.

In this case, Dimitris Avramopoulos will leave the foreign issues sector and have the overall supervision of internal matters. The other vice-president, Stavros Dimas, does not have a specific sector but is likely to assume greater supervision in matters of European policy as the party is subjected to multiple pressures on the EU level because of its anti-memorandum policy.

In terms of communication issues, it is suggested that Samaras pick a person outside Parliament, someone he can identify with. People like Giorgos Mouroutis, deputy representative Vasiliki Tzotzola and Samaras’ advisor Giorgos Harvalias (recommended for the spokesman position) will acquire a more specific role.

Naturally, as he says himself, as leader and future PM he has to synthesize and so he will include members from all tendencies of the party. Aris Spiliotopoulos (the two men had a relevant meeting last week) will take a leading position, probably in education but not in communication. There may be an upgrade of Kyriakos Mitsotakis to the position of parliamentary representative of the party. Of the three representatives, Kostas Tzavaras is staying and possibly getting upgraded. Kostas Markopoulos is under discussion for the representative position and so is Nikos Dendias, in the case that Samaras chooses a parliamentary member.
 
Intraparty conflicts

However, anticipating the changes is causing stress in the party, while the article of Failos Kranidiotis in Antinews, where he is attacking the politicians of the middle field and implying Aris Spiliotopoulos, has caused a stir.

Kranidiotis is replying to all accusations and attacks against Samaras for his anti-memorandum and patriotic positions. He maintains that the ministers who insist on the middle field cannot support the new political and ideological position of social liberalism and complains they are after official party positions to secure personal promotion and a share in intraparty, and later governmental power.