A tough battle worth waging

Kyriakos Mitsotakis, Greece's conservative prime minister, managed to unseat SYRIZA following a tough battle. He must now win the battle of uprooting New Democracy's old-party DNA.

It will not be an easy task. Mitsotakis was bold enough to fill certain key government posts with officials from outside his conservative party, with the exclusive criterion for their appointment being whether they fitted the job description.

His move generated grievances from the usual suspects who, whenever New Democracy is in the opposition, hang out at Kolonaki cafes, head up to the annual Thessaloniki International Fair, and join in the gossip at party conferences.

Unlike the volunteers and most local officials, the aforementioned folk tend to see New Democracy's rise to power not as a chance to change the country, but rather as an opportunity to land a job in the broader public...