Conservative Mitsotakis wins Greek parliamentary elections

Nearly eight million Greek voters on Sunday voted to keep Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis’ conservatives in power and rejected a turn to the left proposed by SYRIZA leader Alexis Tsipras.

With a close analysis of about 91 percent of the vote, New Democracy (ND, right-wing and in power since 2019) won 40.8% of the votes cast and guarantees a 20-point advantage over SYRIZA, which received only 20.1%, well below the poll’s predictions . .

In 2019, the ND received 39.9% of the vote, guaranteeing an absolute majority thanks to an election law that was subsequently repealed, but which will come into force again at the next vote, and which gives an additional bonus of 50 MPs to the party with the most votes, and Syriza 31.5%.

In third place are the Social Democrats Pasok-Kinal with 11.6% (8.1% four years ago), followed by the Communist Party of Greece (KKE) with 7% (5.3% in 2019) and the far-right formation ” On the way to freedom” (Plefsi Eleftherias). ), from 4.5%.

With 2.6%, former finance minister Janis Varoufakis’s left-wing MeRA25 party is dropping out of parliament before passing the 3% barrier to guarantee presence in the 300-MP semi-cycle.

In a statement and reaction to the election results, Varoufakis’s party believed that “Erdoganization and organization of the country is complete”, referring to the current regimes in Turkey and Hungary, attributing the victory to “the overwhelming majority of Mitsotakis Ltd” in the performance of the SYRIZA leadership, not accepting the “pre-election rapprochement of a united front in benefit of a break.

The election result represents a clear support for the conservative and liberal economic management exercised by Mitsotakis over the past four years, and this election was the first since the Greek economy was no longer under the strict control of international creditors who provided large loans (bailout funds) during the so-called debt crisis, which in 2010 brought the country to the brink of bankruptcy and lasted ten years, according to the news agency Efe.

Despite remaining one of the poorest countries in the European Union (EU), its economy grew in 2021 and 2022 by 8.4% and 5.9% respectively, much higher than the European average.

Foreign investment increased significantly, and the economic recovery allowed Mitsotakis to cut taxes, raise pensions, and raise the minimum wage.

“The result showed that the ND enjoys the approval of the citizens for sole control,” the prime minister said, hinting at a second vote that could guarantee him an absolute majority.

No party or coalition has managed to achieve the 45% percentage needed to win an absolute majority in these elections. If the ND insists on not forming coalitions with other factions, new elections will be called, which, according to Greek media reports, could take place between late June and early July.

“We need to make more radical changes to narrow the space that separates us from Europe,” and that can’t be done with “insecure” alliances, Mitsotakis insisted.

Greek voters punished SYRIZA, the main opposition party led by former Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras, the night’s biggest loser, by an 11-point regression from 2019.

As a result of these elections, the Greek left became more fragmented and weakened, and Tsipras failed to convince the electorate of the “big changes” he promised, and many remember the painful reforms he agreed to introduce in the country to guarantee a third bailout. in 2015.

Greece still has memories of that period of polarization following the call for a referendum against austerity measures imposed by international creditors, when the population rejected the troika’s measures and Tsipras subsequently accepted a new bailout that allowed the country to remain in the eurozone.

“I spoke to Mitsotakis and congratulated him on his victory,” Tsipras said in a video message in which he acknowledged his party’s defeat.

The opposition has failed to gain electoral benefits from the high cost of living, one of the campaign themes, from the growing authoritarianism of the government, or from various scandals other than a serious train accident that killed 57 people and sparked a massive wave of protests.

The participation rate was 60.6%, three points higher than in 2019.