To win a second term by an absolute majority, Conservative Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis, largely driven by the results, will have to resort to a second ballot at the end of June.
Published update
This content is not accessible.
Athens
Even the pollsters had not predicted such a gap: Kyriakos Mitsotakis, outgoing Prime Minister, obtained 40.8% of the votes at 90% of the counts, against 20.06% for the radical left of Alexis Tsipras, with a rate turnout of around 59% in the Greek legislative elections on Sunday.
This content is not accessible.
The Greeks thus clearly voted for stability. The Conservative government’s solid economic record seems to have won over a majority of voters. It must be said that unemployment is constantly falling, due in particular to the surge in the tourism sector, growth reached 6% last year, enough to see investors return, not to mention the rapid rate of deleveraging, unprecedented in Europe since the post-war period.
” READ ALSO – In Greece, the return of political instability
“As a bonus, the government has tried to fight against the decline in purchasing power and inflation, by raising the minimum wage three times, even if it remains low”, judge Nikos Dimou, sociologist. A picture at the antipodes of the ten years of economic crisis accompanied by austerity cures (2008-2018), from which the country was barely emerging when Kyriakos Mitsotakis came to power.
“Good economic governance”
The results of this election had the effect of a crushing blow in the ranks of the opposition of the radical left. Alexis Tsipras did not wait for his final score to congratulate the outgoing Prime Minister. ” Left-wing voters still haven’t digested Alexis Tsipras’ turnaround in 2015. While he swore he would stand up against austerity, he finally accepted it. he added.
Especially since his party’s election campaign was not the best, “especially when he announced that he would not close the door to the votes of the voters of the neo-Nazi Golden Dawn party or when his ex-labour minister, Giorgos Katrougalos, declared that his party would raise taxes on profits by 20% liberal professions, adds Nikos Dimou. “The Greeks no longer want these successive punctures, suffered too much during the crisis. The current government has a proven track record of good economic governance, even during the Covid crisis, or with inflation,” he believes.
Coalition refusal
It is this need for solidity which perhaps explains the fall of the small anti-systemic, protesting parties, carried in recent months in the polls, which do not even enter the Vouli, Greek Parliament, like MeRA25, party of Yanis Varoufakis, the left-wing former finance minister. Conversely, the Communist Party KKE saw its score increase, as did Pasok, the Socialist Party, which seems to be rising from its ashes.
This content is not accessible.
“The difference between Pasok and Syriza is greatly reduced. This means that Pasok could again become the second political force in Greece “, judged a framework of the socialist party Sunday evening. Kyriakos Mitsotakis spoke for his part of “political earthquake”making sure he counted “well work harder to honor the trust of the people” .
” READ ALSO – Greece: the return of Yanis Varoufakis, carried by young people
The voting system – simple proportional in one round – prevents, by its essence, any formation of government without resorting to the coalition.“However, the Greek political parties do not have this culture, especially since Greek society has bad memories of past coalitions”,believes Constantinos Filis, director of the Institute of International Relations. From this Monday, each of the major parties will have up to three days to try to form a government coalition.
However, the Conservative Prime Minister has ruled out any compromise, and according to the election results, the opposition will not succeed, even by adding the scores of the Socialist and Communist parties. The deadlock will lead to a new ballot which will probably be held on June 25th.