Incumbent Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis’ Conservative Party remains the largest in Greece, which held parliamentary elections yesterday. Mitsotakis’ New Democracy party, which has been in power for four years, counts with more than half of the votes to 40.1% of the vote and, according to Greek media, can no longer be surpassed. Former Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras’ left-wing Syriza party follows in this ranking with 20.1 percent. A second round of voting is imminent.
Mitsotakis had hoped to regain an absolute majority to govern without a coalition partner. However, that doesn’t appear to be the case for either side. In Greece, a new law will distribute seats equally after this election. Previously, the largest party received a bonus of fifty seats. As a result, the winning side could often rule alone.
As leader of the largest party, Mitsotakis now has nine days to form a coalition. If not, a second round of voting will follow in July. In that round, the largest party will receive a bonus of at least twenty seats, which can go up to fifty. There are a total of 300 seats in the Greek parliament.
Economic growth
Much of Mitsotakis’ popularity has been attributed to economic growth in recent years, even though unemployment in Greece is still high, especially among young people. Rival Tsipras criticizes the prime minister, arguing, among other things, that economic growth is not evenly distributed among the population.
The past four years have also been turbulent times for the government. For example, there was a wiretapping scandal that resulted in a no-confidence vote against Mitsotakis. He survived the vote on this motion because his party has a majority in parliament. The opposition also strongly criticizes him for his strict refugee policy. According to human rights groups, the Greek border guard illegally returns many migrants to Turkey.
Mitsotakis faced large protests in February and March following the train crash that killed 57 people. Protesters blame the government for the lack of maintenance of the railways that allowed the accident. The railway workers went on strike for weeks.
Source: BNR
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