European commissioner nominee pick signals Greece’s rightward turn

ATHENS — Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis is appealing to his political base and signaling a rightward shift through his choice for the country’s next European Commissioner.
Mitsotakis nominated the three-term governor of the region of Central Macedonia, Apostolos Tzitzikostas, for Greece’s slot at the top table in Brussels. He is considered a hardliner on domestic politics and national identity — including on Greece’s long-running name dispute with North Macedonia — and has been accused of cozying up to the far right.
“There is definitely a right-wing shift and a symbolic move by Mitsotakis to show that he is strengthening the right and returning to his party’s base,” said George Siakas, an assistant professor at the Democritus University of Thrace and research director at the Public Opinion Research Unit of the University of Macedonia.
To his supporters, Tzitzikostas is considered a party stalwart, and was elected governor on three successive occasions with impressive support. Fluent in English and French, he studied at Georgetown University in the U.S. and University College London. Crucially, he also has experience with European institutions, having served as president of the European Committee of the Regions.
But there is definitely a rightward tilt to why Mitsotakis chose him.
Tzitzikostas invited the now defunct, extreme-right Greek neo-Nazi Golden Dawn party in 2013 to a public holiday parade in Thessaloniki. When then-mayor Yannis Boutaris protested, he responded: “We all know that he prefers other kinds of parades, which he supports with particular zeal,” referring to gay pride parades.
In 2016, at the height of Europe’s migration crisis, Tzitzikostas abstained from the signing ceremony of a cooperation agreement between Thessaloniki and the UNHCR to improve conditions for asylum seekers. He was accused by Boutaris of “betting on xenophobia.”
Tzitzikostas told POLITICO he considers himself a center-right and moderate politician, pointing out his electoral successes.
“I believe that my European experience, and in particular my experience in the presidency of an official European institution of the EU, contributed significantly to my selection,” he said, adding that in 2020 he was also unanimously elected by all political groups as president of the European Committee of the Regions.
The prime minister’s office did not respond to requests from POLITICO for comment.
Since this June’s European election and the lackluster performance of the prime minister’s conservative New Democracy party, Mitsotakis has tried to appease more conservative voters with a right-leaning cabinet reshuffle and changes to the secretaries-general of the ministries to address the concerns of defecting voters.
Mitsotakis himself secured a second term as prime minister in 2023 off the back of tough anti-migration policies and economic stability after a nearly decade-long financial crisis.
While New Democracy came first in the EU election with 28.3 percent of the vote, the result fell short of the 2019 European election result of 33 percent and well below the 40.5 percent the party won in national elections in June 2023.
“Mitsotakis is trying to buy time and show that he is creating a new internal balance. It is more of a communication manipulation than a new political direction,” said political analyst Lefteris Kousoulis.
When the government legalized same-sex marriage in February 2023, a significant section of the conservative party, including top ministers and members of parliament, said the decision left New Democracy out of touch with some of its conservative and traditional voter base.
“The people trusted the center-right to govern them, not political doctors without borders,” ex-Prime Minister Antonis Samaras, who opposed the legislation, said last month. “We were met with disdain … If the government treats even the former prime minister like this, why shouldn’t the people consider them arrogant?”
However, analysts said that while the issue was particularly sensitive, it reflected pre-existing discontent more than it shaped voters’ decisions. The swing to the right began then, they say, with the selection of the party’s ballot paper for the European elections.
“It is an issue that has caused concern, and which may even have alienated voters, but the disapproval has to do with the way power is managed, with style and ethos,” said Kousoulis.
In July, the government withdrew the candidacy of law professor Katerina Fountedaki to lead the state body that monitors assisted reproductive services because she helped draft the marriage equality law.
After it became clear that several New Democracy MPs would vote her down, senior government officials who blocked the candidacy insisted it wasn’t a “vindictive” act, but rather to prevent the “wound” from reopening.
Analysis of the exit polls from June 2024 shows that fewer New Democracy voters defected to the right than to the left.
Tzitzikostas, a 45-year-old economist and political scion whose late father was an MP and minister for New Democracy, has been regional governor since 2013. The first time he ran, he did so as an independent, when New Democracy decided to support someone else.
He won 71 percent of the vote. He was reelected in 2019 with 62.3 percent and again in 2023 with 60.3 percent.
“He has been a key ally of Mitsotakis within [New Democracy] since he ran for the party leadership in 2016, and without him, Mitsotakis might not have won,” said Siakas, at the Democritus University of Thrace.
But after June’s European election, Greek media suggested the governor might defect and create a new party forming a “League of the North,” that could galvanize the fringe vote on the right.
He was chosen because he is “born and bred” New Democracy, said Greek government spokesman Pavlos Marinakis.
For years, Tzitzikostas has railed against the international agreement between Greece and North Macedonia on national nomenclature. For more than 20 years, Greece had fought with its northern neighbor over the use of Macedonia in its name.
During the long dispute, Greece held up the Balkan country’s EU and NATO push until North Macedonia agreed to change its name in 2018, when the left-wing Syriza government was in power.
Tzitzikostas led rallies against the deal, organizing an online campaign called “Respect for Truth” which called for a referendum on the decision.
Some questioned if Tzitzikostas will be able to make it through his European Commission hearing later this fall, particularly if asked about his views on the name dispute, especially since North Macedonia recently elected a government that has re-stoked those tensions.
Tzitzikostas has already fallen into line, though.
“My position on this issue is the same as that of the Greek government. This is an agreement with many problematic points, but it is binding for both countries,” Tzitzikostas said.