According to initial projections, the conservative Nea Dimokratia of Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis has clearly become the strongest party in the parliamentary elections in Greece. She therefore gained slightly and reached about 41 percent of the votes. Because of the majority, however, it is not yet certain whether she can continue to form the government or whether the Greeks will vote again in a few weeks.
The left-wing Syriza of former Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras came in second. As the largest opposition party, it lost more than ten percentage points and only received around 20 percent of the votes overall. The social democratic Pasok came in third with 12.5 percent.
The communists, with 6.8 percent, and the right-wing populist Elliniki Lysi, with 4.5 percent, also made it over the three percent hurdle into parliament. The left-wing party Mera25 of former Finance Minister Giannis Varoufakis had to tremble with 2.37 percent and the ultra-conservative party Niki with 2.9 percent, which was running for the first time. Voter turnout was again low: only 56.5 percent of those entitled to vote went to the polls.
The conservative Mitsotakis campaigned for stability, tax cuts and investments during the election campaign. In recent years, the conservatives have succeeded in lowering taxes and levies while still reducing the country’s enormous mountain of debt. In international rankings, Greece’s credit rating rose and unemployment fell from almost 19 to around eleven percent. At the same time, the minimum wage and pensions were increased for the first time in years. In addition, the authorities were consistently streamlined and digitized.
On the other hand, Syriza called for a massive expansion of the welfare state. After years of the financial crisis and the corona pandemic, Greece is still one of the poorest countries in Europe. During the election campaign, Tsipras announced that he would increase the minimum wage and pensions significantly. In addition, a 13th monthly pension should be paid annually in the future. He and his party did not explain how these and many other state investments were to be financed.
A second ballot is possible
A rapid formation of a government is also not to be expected due to a change in the electoral law. After the strongest party used to automatically receive 50 additional seats in the 300-strong parliament, there is now a simple proportional representation system without extra seats. Smaller parties are no longer so disadvantaged in this way, but forming a government is made more difficult.
Coalitions have little tradition in Greece and when they did exist, they were usually not crowned with success. Kingmaker could become the Pasok. Its chairman has savored his potentially decisive position in recent weeks and has not yet clearly said whether and with which party he would form a coalition.
If the government is not formed within ten days of the election, a new election must be held. This could take place in early July. Then there is a Greek peculiarity that puts the smaller parties at a disadvantage: the strongest party gets 20 additional seats in parliament. If the Conservatives then achieve around 37 percent of the votes, they could govern alone again.