Greece’s conservative New Democracy party won a landslide victory in Sunday elections, handing its leader Kyriakos Mitsotakis a second term as prime minister.
New Democracy’s win in Greece’s second election in five weeks inflicted a stinging defeat on their main rivals, the left-wing Syriza party.
New Democracy party secured 158 seats in Greece’s 300-seat parliament, giving the country its most rightward slant since the restoration of democracy in 1974.
Turnout rate in Greece’s elections has been only 52%, down from 61.1% in the May 21 elections. The recent elections saw the lowest turnout since the restoration of democracy in 1974. This means New Democracy’s victory is based on just 22% of popular vote.
Mitsotakis will be able to govern autonomously with only the parliamentarians from his party. Today, Mistotakis will go to the Presidential Palace at 11 a.m., where he will receive the mandate to form a government from President Katerina Sakellaropoulou. Then, at 1 p.m., he will take the oath before the president.
The left wing party Syriza, led by Alexis Tsipras, obtained 17.84% of the votes and 48 seats. Tsipras acknowledged the defeat and said he would take “responsibility” for the poor result. “It goes without saying that in this process of reconstruction, I will be the first to submit to the judgment of the party members,” Tsipras said.
The Socialist PASOK party, which had ruled Greece for decades until a few years ago, also took a hammering, finishing third with about 10% votes and 32 seats. The Communist KKE party lost six seats. The only upside for the Left was Course of Freedom, a populist, anti-establishment party sometimes termed ‘nationalist Left’, which won eight seats.
Under Mitsotakis, the Greek economy grew almost six per cent in 2022, outscoring most of Europe. Unemployment has dropped and investment has grown. The Conservative government recently cut more than 50 domestic taxes and also digitised what had become an outdated bureaucratic system.
Mitsotakis stated that New Democracy has set major targets for its second term, which he believes can transform Greece and bring it to the forefront in Europe.
