The president of the Greek Court of Auditors, Ioannis Sarmas, is expected to lead an interim government in Greece and organize new elections by the end of June. President Katerina Sakellaropoulou will receive the 66-year-old judge today and give him this task, the President’s Office in Athens announced – three days after Sunday’s parliamentary elections.
The new elections are called because the former head of government Kyriakos Mitsotakis and his conservative party Nea Dimokratia (ND) won a clear victory in the parliamentary elections with 40% of the votes, but failed to secure a majority in parliament. Mitsotakis rejected the mandate to form a government and instead called another vote “possibly on June 25”.
New law will come into force in new elections – bonus for winners
A new electoral law already passed would come into force for the first time in a new election, granting the winner a bonus of up to 50 seats. For Mitsotakis’ ND, a government majority would be very likely with this bonus.
Alexis Tsipras, who with his left-wing SYRIZA party won just 20% of the vote in parliamentary elections, also rejected the idea of forming a coalition. He announced that he would fight again to prevent the formation of an “all-powerful” Conservative government.