Convincing victory "new democracy"

In the parliamentary elections, Kyriakos Mitsotakis’ New Democracy retained its status as the ruling party of Greece for another four years.

More than 20 percentage points behind Alexis Tsipras’ SYRIZA. According to official data, after processing 97% of the ballots, “ND” receives 41% of the votes, i.е. 146 seats in parliament, and the main opposition party – 20% of voters and 71 seats.

In third place is PASOK Nikos Androulakis: 12% and 41 seats in the Greek Parliament.

Despite the victory and a significant lead over the SYRIZA party, New Democracy failed to win the majority of seats in the 300-seat parliament. This means it will need to join a coalition to form a government, which Kyriakis Mitsotakis says is unlikely.

Most likely, writes Euronews, the distribution of parliamentary mandates will require re-elections: in them, New Democracy, as the party that won first place, will receive bonus seats in the legislature and will probably be able to form a cabinet of ministers alone. The second round is expected to take place in late June or early July.

Recall that these parliamentary elections were the first since the country’s economy was no longer under the strict supervision and control of international creditors who provided funds during the financial crisis, which lasted almost a decade.

Greek edition iefimerida.gr writesthat the victory of the New Democracy in the 2023 elections is widely covered in the media in Germany, Austria and Switzerland, who speak of a “clear victory” for the ruling party and refer to the prospect of new elections in the summer. In particular, in the Welt article under the heading “Conservatives celebrate a crushing victory – Greece still faces new elections” notes:

“Greeks again gave Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis clear powers, but this is not enough to form a government. Although Syriza remained the strongest opposition party, gaining about 20%, it lost more than 10 points. SYRIZA campaigned for a massive expansion of the welfare state, wanted to increase pensions and the minimum wage, and increase taxes on the economy. But it was clearly less effective than the Conservatives’ program of further stabilizing the country after the last decade’s severe financial crisis and getting the economy back on track. Many voters are also outraged by the rule of Tsipras during the severe economic crisis in the country. At the time, he was forced to implement austerity programs.”

And Münchner Merkur writes about the “brutal punishment of Tsipras”: “Elections in Greece: Tsipras is severely punished, Mitsotakis celebrates and goes to new elections. There is no doubt that the Conservatives will win the election.”

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