There was a clear winner in yesterday’s elections in Greece: the conservative party “Nea Dimokratia” led by former Prime Minister Mitsotakis will continue to govern Greece for the next four years. The largest opposition party received 17.8 percent of the vote.
Kyriakos Mitsotakis has achieved what he wanted to achieve with the new elections: being able to continue governing alone. In the end, he got 40.6 percent of the votes with his conservative “Nea Dimokratia,” similar to the last election at the end of May. Because a different electoral system applied this time, according to which the winner is entitled to a particularly large number of bonus seats in parliament, it is now easily enough for an absolute majority. Of the 300 seats in parliament, “Nea Dimokratia” has 158 seats.
“In my second term of office, we have high goals to continue to drive Greece forward dynamically. To increase wages and reduce inequalities. For example through better, public and free health care. Through a digital state. And a strong home country at the top of Europe.
No trust in Tsipras
For the biggest competitor, the left-wing Syriza of ex-Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras, on the other hand, things are going downhill. In the May election, his party fell to 20 percent, now there are only 17.8 percent. The minimum goal of “strongest opposition force” has been achieved. But Tsipras is increasingly losing the trust of the citizens. The disappointment that he made so many promises in 2015 that he had to take back because of the strict austerity policy is still too deep. Many people in the country tend to trust Mitsotakis to further advance the country economically.
And to make matters worse for Tsipras, two small parties have split from Syriza in recent years. He wants to analyze the causes of the election result and does not rule out personal consequences either: “The party members are asked to assess us all and to develop the strategy to react to the difficult situation. It goes without saying that I am in this collective reconstruction process to the judgment of party members.”
Pasok in third place
As in the last election, the social democratic Pasok came in third. However, it can hardly benefit from the weakness of Syriza and is stagnating at twelve percent. The goal of becoming the strongest opposition force and being able to compete with “Nea Dimokratia” again at some point is more of a long-term goal.
Party leader Nikos Andoulakis is particularly concerned about the shift to the right in parliament.
Over time, Pasok, our party, has been a democratic bulwark against all these phenomena. Today’s result underscores our duty to build the modern centre-left.
Completely surprisingly, the ultra-right “Spartans” will move into parliament – the successor party to the banned “Golden Dawn”. From now on one of three right-wing parties in parliament. On the left edge, the communists, among others, manage to move in.
The turnout in this new election within a few weeks was just 52 percent. The lowest value in a long time.