Residents went to vote on Sunday and the first prediction was confirmed: it will be the former conservative governor’s second term.. Mitsotakis, from Greece’s center-right party, renews the post of prime minister for another four years, having won a significant advantage over the main opponent of the left-wing coalition.
Former Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis, who will return to government after this victory, promised “big changes” ranging from “raising wages” to a “more efficient state”.. According to the first results, and after counting more than 80 percent of the votes, The New Democracy (ND) party won 40.5 percent of the vote against 17.8 percent for the left-wing Syriza party led by Alexis Tsipras.
Once the polls close, The first projections indicated that Nova Democracy would be close to achieving a majority, with polls indicating a result of between 40 and 44 percent of the vote. The same projections presented that the left-wing Syriza party, led by Alexis Tsipras (who ruled Greece from 2015 to 2019), could reach 16 or 19 percent, a record lower than in the May 21 elections. Confirming these results, New Democracy delivers the most comfortable victory for any party since 1974.
Greek TV channels published the data after polling stations closed.
Remember that last month Mitsotakis defeated Tsipras but called new elections in an effort to reach an absolute majority and thus be able to form a government. According to Greek election rules for a second election, The Conservatives will get an additional number of seats in parliament, but the exact number depends on the final outcome.
Greece’s new electoral system gives a bonus of between 25 and 50 seats to the winning party, depending on the outcome, making it easier for a party to win more than the 151 seats needed in parliament to form a government.. This rule was eliminated in the past elections, which ended in the failure of all attempts to form a government.
According to the first surveys, Between five and nine parties crossed the 3 percent threshold of the vote to enter Greece’s 300-seat parliament.
PASOK followed next, with 12.3 percent and 33 seats, and the Communist Party of Greece, with 7.6 percent and 20 seats. The far-right parties Spartanus (4.7 percent), the Greek Solution (4.6 percent) and Niki (3.6 percent) collectively receive 13 percent of the vote and will have 34 deputies, with the Spartans and the Greek Solution electing 12 each and Niki winning 10 parliamentary seats.
The Spartans emerged as a political force only this month, when Greece’s Supreme Court banned the Hellenic National Party, another far-right party, and its leader from running as candidates in this election.
After winning by a wide margin the May 21 election, but without a majority in the 300-seat parliament, the conservative leader now needs just 39 percent to secure an outright majority, thanks to a bonus of up to 50 seats for the winning party.
On Sunday, Greece holds its second general election in a month, marked by the immigration issue after a recent shipwreck in the Ionian Sea, but also by unemployment and the trade deficit.
The shipwreck was one of the most tragic migration disasters in the Mediterranean, as only a hundred survivors were found after a boat carrying about 750 people capsized, and generated a climate of intense tension between the two main candidates to win the elections next Sunday.
The campaign was also dominated by unemployment, which has already reached 12 percent, and a trade deficit that still worries Greeks, who still remember the effects of external financial intervention after the 2008 crisis.
Mitsotakis appeared before the electorate with a promise to end the reforms implemented by his government so that the Greek economy continues to grow, saying that it is essential for the country to approach Europe in terms of wages and living standards. Tsipras advocates an economy that “works for everyone” and – after his party’s defeat in May, when it lost a third of its voters compared to 2019 – is now asking for a vote for Syriza to remain a “strong opposition party”.
There was no shortage of reasons to criticize Tsipras during the election campaign, pointing to the government’s inability to deal with the escalating trade deficit and rising unemployment, especially among the youth.
with agencies
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