A new day has dawned in Greece. A day of hope. A day of optimism. Greece has crossed the Rubicon, from a crippling attitude of “it can’t be done” to the empowering “it can be done.”

The winners in the elections of May 21 were thus the Greek people as well as Kyriakos Mitsotakis. The people chose to look forward. They chose progress. They chose stability and security. They chose knowledge and competence. International prestige. They chose Kyriakos Mitsotakis en masse.

In addition, the people rejected Alexis Tsipras, who not only failed to address the mistakes of the past, but added new ones, which scared them even more.
Whether or not or to what degree the leader of SYRIZA and this party will survive and not be absorbed by another party, i.e. PASOK, will be decided in the next election.

In any case, the country needs a strong opposition. A serious opposition – which the people have realized SYRIZA is not.

And so, today, Greece enters a new era that will be sealed by an even greater victory, as expected, in the second election.

A cycle is coming to an end, the cycle governed by memories of the Junta and their exploitation by politicians and pseudo-patriots. The post-junta period is coming to an end.

And the cycle of Kyriakos Mitsotakis has begun. The cycle of competence. Of inventiveness. Of credible alliances. Of solving chronic problems, such as the major issue of bureaucratic obstacles to progress and growth.

A cycle of even greater integration of Greece into Europe and the West is opening up, which will also have a positive impact on Greece’s relations with Hellenes abroad.

And, furthermore, it opens up the possibility of significant investment in Greece from abroad in general, and America in particular.

As far as expatriate Hellenes are concerned, I have been stressing for years that a prerequisite for their psychological connection with Greece is a sense of pride. The glory of Ancient Greece is not enough, however important it may be. Expatriates want their children to see new glorious pages of progress and international recognition for today’s Greece.

They need a new ‘Albanian Epic’ – when Greece drove Mussolini’s invasion forces back across the border and chased them deep into Albania, and the West’s biggest newspapers were filled with photos and sketches of the heroism of the Evzones.

Something similar is needed now, in the fields of education, the economy, and defense. Something that will again make the world rub its eyes in surprise.
And who knows, maybe Mitsotakis in the next elections – June 25 – will get 200 MPs (such a supermajority is needed for certain legislative and constitutional changes) and remove the obstacles that Tsipras has erected to deprive expatriates of our voting power.

And as far as investment is concerned, now that Kyriakos has swept away the populist falsehoods, now that the Greek people are moving away from the backward-looking mindsets of the past – and provided that the reforms go ahead – a tsunami of investment will be created in Greece, a virtually primeval market, one that is ready to take off.

And so, I repeat, Sunday was a historic day for Greece and for Kyriakos Mitsotakis.