In a resounding victory, Greek conservative leader Kyriakos Mitsotakis and his New Democracy party have emerged as the winners of Greece’s general election, receiving a strong mandate from the voters to bring about significant change.
Mitsotakis, who had previously defeated his centre-left rival SYRIZA in May, called for new elections in order to secure enough seats to govern independently.
With over 95% of the votes counted, the New Democracy party (ND) won 40.5% of the vote, almost 23 points ahead of SYRIZA.
Mitsotakis has thanked voters for giving his party a “strong mandate” to move faster on the path of change.
“ND is today the most powerful centre-right party in Europe,” Mitsotakis told delighted supporters in Athens. “Today we will celebrate our victory, tomorrow we will roll up our sleeves.”
Last month, his party fell just short of a majority in the 300-seat parliament and his decision to call an election in a bid to form a stable, single-party government was vindicated by Sunday’s result.
Under Greek rules for a second election, the biggest party is awarded a bonus of between 20 and 50 seats. With more than 40% of the vote, New Democracy won all 50.
“The people have given us a secure majority,” Mitsotakis said as the result became clear. “Major reforms will go ahead with speed.”
Former Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras’ SYRIZA party was unable to narrow the margin of last month’s defeat.
But one of the big stories of the election was the success of a newly created far-right Spartans party which won almost 4.7% of the vote, crossing the 3% threshold to enter parliament.
The Spartans only emerged as a political force this month when the Greek Supreme Court banned another far-right party, the Greeks, and its jailed founder, Ilias Kasidiaris, threw his weight behind them.
Kasiadaris had been the spokesman for neo-Nazi party Golden Dawn, which was banned as a criminal organisation and its leaders given long prison terms.
Greek commentators noted that together with nationalist Greek Solution and ultra-conservative Niki (Victory), the hard right had won a bloc of more than 30 seats.
Source: BBC.
