Kyriakos Mitsotakis, leader of the conservative New Democracy (ND) party, won this Sunday’s general elections in Greece by a margin of between 40% and 44% of the vote, according to the first election polls. With this percentage he is guaranteed at least 151 of the 300 seats in parliament and he can govern alone for another four years. The second force was the left-wing Syriza, led by Alexis Tsipras, a party which according to initial polls received only between 16% and 19% of the vote.
The big surprise – if the results are confirmed – comes from the neo-Nazi party Spartans, who was promoted from prison by Ilias Kasidiaris, who was spokesman for the neo-Nazi party Golden Dawn until it was declared a criminal organization. Kasidiaris is serving a sentence for this. Espartanos, his current formation, got between 4% and 6% of the vote according to the first polls, a margin higher than the 3% minimum required to enter Parliament.
Mitsotakis’ aim was to rule alone. This was clearly demonstrated when he won the general elections on May 21 with a significant but insufficient 40.79% of the vote (146 MPs). That day he won by a margin of 20 points over Syriza, the party with the second most votes. It came as a surprise to everyone, but the result only allowed him to govern in a coalition. Mitsotakis then chose to participate in other elections, knowing they would be held under an electoral system approved by his party in 2020, which would provide a bonus of up to 50 seats for the party with the most votes. And the operation went as expected.
Mitsotakis has managed to prevent the biggest crises his executive branch has faced since 2019 from taking their toll: neither the spying on opponents, journalists and the military, nor the protests that followed the biggest train crash in the country’s history , which killed 57 people. last February 28th. The determination of his immigration policy not only did not tire him, but was approved. The Prime Minister-elect has insisted during his election campaign that he needs at least one more term to complete the task of “stability”, “modernization” and “economic growth” begun in 2019.
The Greek economy grew by 8.3% in 2021 and by 5.9% in 2022, almost twice the European Union average (3.5%) last year. Tourism, the main source of wealth, is breaking occupancy records, both in the capital and on the islands. The shipping industry, the country’s second largest asset, is also doing well. Greece remains the world’s leading shipowning country with 5,514 vessels, accounting for around 21% of the world fleet.
Mitsotakis won in 2019 with 39.85% of the vote (158 seats), compared to 31.53% for Syriza (86 seats). According to the election polls, Syriza did not exceed the 20 percent mark in these elections. This distance between the two can now put pressure on the leader of the left formation to initiate a process of reflection on his leadership. Tsipras is the most charismatic politician in Greece and the best speaker. But it is also the most visible face of the austerity measures his government has been applying since 2015, when it accepted cuts imposed by the European institutions in exchange for bailing out the country and avoiding payment suspensions and exiting the eurozone.
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