Why Greece’s new government is likely to stay close to China
- The New Democracy party of newly elected Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis started the process of building a closer relationship with Beijing over a decade ago
- Outgoing Syriza government made Greece the first developed nation to sign up for the Belt and Road Initiative
Greece’s incoming Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis will have to decide whether to continue opening up the country to Chinese investment following his election victory on Sunday.
Although the previous government led by Syriza signed up for the Belt and Road Initiative in 2018, earlier this year the leader of the centre-right New Democracy party told the US broadcaster PBS that “I don’t understand what it means to formally join the belt and road … Nobody’s approached me with a formal offer”.
His gaffe did not go unnoticed in the country’s media, which pointed out that Greece was the first developed country to sign a memorandum of understanding with China over the multibillion-dollar global infrastructure and investment strategy.
Now Mitsotakis will have to decide what balance he wants to strike between continuing to court Chinese money as the country struggles to rebuild its economy after the country’s catastrophic crash earlier this decade and the EU’s increasingly sceptical attitude towards Beijing.
“Let’s not forget that it was a New Democracy government, back in 2004, that first launched the strengthening of Greek-Chinese relations that we are witnessing today in many sectors and, above all, the maritime one,” said Marina Skordeli, a foreign policy adviser to former prime minister Kostas Karamanlis between 2004 and 2009.