The elections this Sunday in Greece were practically a ‘déjà vu’ of those held last May: the polls gave the same results to the winner and the main objective of this second call was to ensure a stable government after the failure in the first to form a coalition of parties.
The conservative Kyriakos Mitsotakis, leader of New Democracy (ND), prevailed again with more than 40% of the votes and 158 seats and obtained an absolute majority. He started as the clear favorite and the only question was whether he would pull off an even larger victory than his first attempt. On this occasion, the majority was assured thanks to the electoral system that grants a bonus of up to 50 seats to the winning party and that had been eliminated in the first elections.
The other key to the day is the scenario drawn by the results for the left after the crash in May of the opposition leader, Alexis Tsipras, and his party, Syrirza, which only obtained 20% of the votes. The objective of former Prime Minister Tsipras in this second campaign was to cut the 20-point advantage that ND took from him and maintain “a strong opposition to control the Government”, which he accuses of wanting to “become a regime” and of having “a hides” with promises “that he will not keep. But the collapse of the formation was even worse, with 17% of the votes and 47 seats, so that Tsipras will foreseeably be forced to consider his future as party leader.
In third position, the Socialist Party (PASOK) which with 12% returns to the political race after a decade of stagnation and which will fight from now on with Syriza to recover the space of the center left and will prepare for the sorpasso in the elections to the European Parliament in June 2024.
The Communist Party is the fourth formation with 7%. The new Parliament will be made up of eight parties, compared to the five that exceeded the necessary 3% in May: the far-right formations Spartans, Democratic Patriotic Movement-Victory (NIKI) and Greek Solution. In addition to the far-left party Freedom Course.
The two elections have been marked by two tragedies that have shocked Greek society: in May, the train accident in Tempe in which 58 people died, most of them university students; and in June, the shipwreck of migrants off the coast of the country that left more than 80 dead and hundreds missing. However, neither these events nor the scandals that have involved Mitsotakis’s party (such as the government’s wiretapping of journalists, the military and politicians) have diminished the popularity of the conservative, who will be the first president reelected since the great economic crisis.
“Today we vote for the second time in a few weeks so that the country has a stable and effective government,” said Mitsotakis after depositing his ballot yesterday in the Kifisiá neighborhood in Athens. Before the final count of the votes, the ND leader spoke from his headquarters in Piraeus: “When I took my first steps in politics 20 years ago, I did not expect to have such a strong mandate. I worked hard, but I could not have done it without my partners and my family. They always kept me grounded.” Mitsotakis anticipated that “important reforms will be implemented quickly” and assured that he will be “the prime minister of all Greeks because problems have no color.”
His campaign speech has focused on the economy of the “traumatized” country, in his own words, which he inherited in 2019 due to the crisis. Once he has consolidated power alone, Mitsotakis faces the challenge of completing the reforms promised during his first term aimed at modernizing the country and stabilizing the economy, which has registered growth even higher than that of its European partners but whose improvement is not over. reflect in the pocket of citizens due to inflation and low wages.
“He has to implement the reforms in crucial areas of the administration: health, education, justice and public finances. It will be a difficult challenge, it is a job that has not been achieved in the last two decades. Mitsotakis started it in his first legislature but now “He has to complete it. He has to move forward and fast. This is his big bet. Whether Mitsotakis will be seen as a before and after in Greek politics in a few years will depend on whether he succeeds in applying these reforms,” ??says the Greek journalist and expert on European politics John Papageorgiou.
“The future of Greece will be politically stable with the new government. But at the same time the challenges will be great. The most important is the European policy regarding the new fiscal rules. If the EU agrees to control the national economies, as happened during the crisis from the Eurozone it will be very problematic for ND because they are spending a lot now they are benefiting that we have other things to deal with like the war in Ukraine but if Germany in particular decides to go back to the previous strict policies Mitsotakis will be in difficulties”, warns George Tzogopoulos, a researcher at the Hellenic Foundation for European and Foreign Policy, adding that “the other great challenge is foreign policy, particularly with Turkey, since after the summer break we will resume tensions” .
Mitsotakis has promised to increase the average salary to 1,500 and the minimum to 950 euros. Also “a friendly, digital and, above all, effective State in a country that is strong both defensively and diplomatically.”
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