Europeans 2024: the leader of the Greek Solution party could “exceed all expectations”
“Journalist and home shopping presenter, businessman and politician, Velopoulos makes a career promoting ‘the homeland, religion and the anti-system’”, introduces the progressive Greek magazine Lifo.
The far-right formation of Kyriakos VelopoulosGreek solution, which won 4.3% of the votes in the 2023 legislative elections, should make further progress in the European elections and get closer to 10%.
If the three major parties – New Democracy, SyrizaPasok – do not expect any surprises on the evening of June 9, “Kyriakos Velopoulos, with his personal party, could exceed all expectations”, predicts the Greek media.
Cogs of the system
Already elected to the European Parliament in 2019, the president of Greek Solution is therefore aiming for re-election and an increase in the number of his representatives in Brussels.
Greek solution is “a right-wing populist party, without well-defined ideology or political principles”, explains the weekly. “The positions are those of its president, who acts almost like an owner. Velopoulos’ speech is racist, unscientific, with nationalist overtones. He tries to identify with each disaffected person and is often accused of exploiting religious sentiment. He loves conspiracy theories and fake news.”
“He seeks to present himself as a victim (…) targeted by the establishment“, but “in reality, Velopoulos is also a cog in the system and he worked hard to achieve this,” ensures Lifo.
A long-time teleshopping presenter, where he sold cosmetic and hair products as well as history books or fake Orthodox relics, Kyriakos Velopoulos established himself in the Greek political landscape from the 2000s. Frequenting Pasok in his youth, then a member of the nationalist party Laos, he joined New Democracy in the early 2010s before founding his own party, Greek Solution.
Good salesman
“Velopoulos is a populist, a cunning politician and a very good salesman, because that is his job, selling,” explains to Lifo a communications expert who has followed his journey. “He identified a space and an audience early on through the products he launched, and each time he positioned himself accordingly. He took advantage of his shows to make himself known and gain an audience. he specifies.
The 58-year-old man is taking advantage of the discontent and frustration of a part of the Greek population, caused both by economic difficulties and by the supposed loss of Greek and Christian values and identity. It is in the north of the country, in the impoverished region of Macedonia, that he obtains his best scores.
“No one is sure if he himself believes what he says, but everyone recognizes his skills in politically manipulating his audience.”
Opposed to homosexual marriage and immigration, idolater of Putin and anti-vaccine, he captures the electorate who want to be anti-system and reactionary, proposing “a wide range in which there is everything and where everyone can pick what they want”, summarizes, circumspectly, Lifo.
