Farmer's market, ministry, office – and some yoga
Domna Michailidou is late. She should have been at the Sofia Befon Municipal Indoor Sports Center in Palaio Faliro for the 3rd Disabled Sports Tournament since 9.15 a.m. The time is 9.11 and she still hasn't left her house in Kolonaki, central Athens. When she appears at the door, she looks simple, with little makeup. She gets on a motorcycle and arrives at the sports center just before the opening address at 10 a.m.
She speaks with all the teams that participated in the tournament and greets the children one by one – she already knows many of them – takes pictures with them, asks about their news, gives them hugs. When it is time for the dignitaries to hand out the awards to the athletes in attendance, it's clear she'd rather be talking to the kids than standing on the makeshift stage. Soon, she has to go, the day is long and it has just begun.
Next stop is the farmer's market in the district of Ypapanti. This time she's commuting by car. She wants to read her speech for the conference she's attending right after. She highlights important points with a yellow marker, while her assistant asks her which photos to upload on her social media and marks some of them for Michailidou to approve before getting out of the car.
The farmer's market is huge and Michailidou starts greeting people the moment she steps out of the car until she gets back in, an hour and a half later. She greets sellers of clothes, fruit and vegetables and Piraeus locals who came here to shop. She also hands out cards. At times she worries that she and her team are blocking shoppers. “Don't mind us,” she tells those who seem not to care about her presence. She engages in conversation with some shoppers, always using the polite form of address. When someone wishes her “Good luck” in the elections, she responds, “Thank you – I need it.” Another person tells her she's “very active” and encourages her to “keep it up.” “We still have a lot to do, but we're trying,” she replies. Preparing to leave the market, she buys apples and lettuces.
Next stop is the Athens Marriott Hotel, for a conference on “Artificial Intelligence and Autism.” At the end, several people approach her to speak to her. “I'm terribly late!” she says after chatting with them and rushes off to the Labor Ministry, where she has a meeting with her colleagues. In the car we talk about deinstitutionalization.
Back in her office, on her desk, there are open newspapers and magazines with her interviews, black-andwhite photos and two cartoons by Kathimerini's Andreas Petroulakis. After the meeting she has a Zoom interview. “I haven't seen myself in the mirror,” she says a few minutes before she goes live. She hasn't had time to see the questions but it turns out she didn't need to. She is ready to talk about everything she is asked, about the ministry and about the honor she received, as she says, when “the prime minister asked me to run for Parliament for the first time, to represent my city… I was born in Piraeus,” she says, and it is something she never tires of pointing out.
The next stop is her personal office, which is housed in the apartment that belonged to her father in Piraeus. On the way, she mentions that every Tuesday and Thursday mornings she does yoga at home and that every evening she goes out. She may be a deputy minister but she is also a 35-year-old woman.
Volunteers
A couple from Piraeus comes into the office. “How can we help?” the woman asks. Michailidou says that the priority is to get incumbent Premier Kyriakos Mitsotakis re-elected. But the purpose of this appointment is for the couple to spread her own candidacy as well, to as many people as possible. “We can also go to a fish restaurant,” they answer. She thanks them and notes how much she appreciates their help. After they leave, Michailidou and her team draw up the schedule for the next few days.
The time is 8.23 p.m. She quickly tops up her makeup in the car and we arrive at the last meeting of the day, at a house in Piraeus. Around 20 people are already waiting for there. Ten more arrive soon after and Michailidou introduces herself to each guest. “Why are boys and girls sitting separately?” she asks later on. They pour her a glass of wine and wish her good luck. “It's up to you,” she replies. Some of the attendees work at the local health center, another is an economist, most are middle-class people. Michailidou doesn't make a speech but opts for individual conversations with each of the people standing around and then moves on to the seated ones.
She talks politics with the men in the room. Most of them tell her that they have traditionally voted for socialist PASOK and the Communist Party (KKE), some that this is the first time they are participating in a political gathering at a home, that they came to meet her, or they explain why they voted for New Democracy in the previous elections or why they are thinking of doing so now.
“Managed to escape?” a few women ask Michailidou when she approaches them on the other side of the living room. “It felt like I was with my parents' friends,” she replies. They talk about the UK as many of those present had lived there while studying. “You are very beautiful up close,” another tells her. It's almost 9.30 p.m. and she's still smiling, after 12 hours in heels.