NEW YORK. A delegation of the Diaspora Sector of Greece’s ruling New Democracy party visited New York City December 1-4. The group included Nikolaos Theodoropoulos, Secretary for the Diaspora, and two deputy secretaries responsible for U.S.-Canada issues, Orsaki Roussetou and Leonidas Markantonatos.

The purpose of the visit was to make contact with expatriate voters in view of national elections that will take place in Greece next year. Towards that end, a meeting was organized in Manhattan that included members of New Democracy from New York and Boston, but there were also meetings with a wider group of leaders to facilitate a mutual exchange of information and ideas.

The delegation had contacts with the Consul General Konstantinos Konstantinou, officials at the Archdiocese of America, and representatives of the associations of the expatriate community in Astoria including George Georgopoulos, president of the Federation of Hellenic Societies of Greater New York, and George Almiroudis, past president of the Chian Federation of New York.

In Astoria they visited the school of St. Demetrios where they had a meeting with the administration in the presence of the education coordinator Irini Grapsia, where they were informed about the problems of the teachers.

During their stay in New York, the delegation also had meetings with representatives of Greek professional associations and attended the annual Gala of The Hellenic Initiative (THI).

On December 4 a meeting was organized with members of the New Democratic Party in New York, where Theodoropoulos informed them about the vote of expatriates and the new functions and capabilities of the gov.gr platform that will help Greek-Americans with their transactions with the Greek state. The meeting was attended by 30 members and friends of the New Democratic Party.

Before going to New York the delegation visited Boston and Chicago and Theodoropoulos will continue his trip with visits to England and Germany.

After returning to Athens, Markantonatos spoke to The National Herald about the trip and the New Democracy party’s aims and initiatives. “In the Diaspora Hellenism Secretariat we are people who have all lived abroad – personally, I have lived abroad most of my life, including seven years in the United States – and when we talk to Greeks abroad we can understand their problems. During our stay in New York we spoke with representatives of the expatriate community about the chronic problems that Greeks abroad, especially in New York, face.”

He added that they want to let people in America know that, “there is another Greece out there that many in our country are unaware of , and [we know] expatriates are hungry for a connection with their homeland… we want to make Greeks abroad part of the political dialogue in Greece and we see that there are many people who want and need to be utilized.”

Markantonatos emphasized that, “in the present government there are people who came back from abroad because they believed in the vision of Kyriakos Mitsotakis, knowing that Greece has tremendous potential. We are already breaking one record after another in terms of investment, tourism, and economic indicators and there are many Greeks abroad who tell us that finally after a decade of crisis they feel proud to be Greeks.”