Incumbent Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis’ conservative New Democracy has won a landslide election victory on Sunday, but without enough parliamentary seats to form a government.
With more than half the votes counted, conservative New Democracy took a commanding lead of 40.9% (up from 39.9% in the 2019 election), trouncing SYRIZA at 20.1% (down from 31.53% in 2019).
But due to the current electoral system of proportional representation, Mitsotakis’ 40% vote share is still not enough to secure a majority of the 300 seats in parliament, meaning he would either have to seek a coalition partner from a smaller party, or head to a second election.
In a victory speech on Sunday night, Mitsotakis said the result showed that Greeks had given his party a mandate for a four-year government.
“The people wanted the choice of a Greece run by a majority government and by New Democracy without the help of others,” he said in the victory speech.
While Mitsotakis could form a coalition government with PASOK or Elliniki Lysi, his speech indicated he will seek a second election hoping to consolidate his victory without need of a coalition partner.
A new vote, likely to be held on June 25 or July 2, will be held with a new electoral law which gives bonus seats to the winning party, making it easier for it to form a government on its own.
In response to the election results, SYRIZA leader Alexis Tsipras said they were “extremely negative.”
“I called [Kyriakos] Mitsotakis to congratulate him. Battles have both wins and losses. Our collective [party] bodies will convene immediately to assess the results. There will be another battle. We must immediately make all the changes that are needed,” he said from SYRIZA headquarters.
For his part, PASOK leader Nikos Androulakis said his party could surpass SYRIZA in the near future, having won 11.58% of the vote this year, up from 8.10% in 2019.
KKE had also a better result, 7,18% from 5,30% in 2019. Far right party, Elliniki Lysi, is again in the parliament with 4,46% instead 3,70% in 2019. Varoufakis’ Mera25 party is out.
Source: Ekathimerini, AP News.
