Monday May 22, 2023
According to the first results, the conservative party of Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis secured a significant victory in the Greek elections. However, Mitsotakis fell short of an outright majority and would likely call for a new vote in about a month.
With more than half the ballots counted, his New Democracy party won 40.9% of the vote, leading by a sizeable 20-point margin over left-wing rival Alexis Tsipras' Syriza party, which won 20.1%.
Mitsotakis now faces a decision whether to engage in tough negotiations with his opponents to form a coalition government or opt for new elections, potentially in early July. Reaction from prominent members of his party suggests a new vote is highly likely. Former Foreign Minister Nikos Dendias expressed surprise at the result, calling it an extraordinary result.
Takis Theodorikakos, a minister and senior official from Mitsotakis's party, suggested the conservatives could gain enough support in a second election to continue implementing reforms as an autonomous government. Another New Democracy minister, Theodoros Skylakakis, emphasized that the reactions of the other parties indicated that a second election was imminent.
The result dealt a heavy blow to Tsipras, who has now lost his fourth election battle in a row against Mitsotakis. Tsipras was prime minister from 2015 to 2019, during which he led difficult negotiations with creditors that almost led to Greece leaving the euro.
In some areas, Tsipras is even trailing the third socialist party Pasok-Kinal led by Nikos Androulakis, with early results showing Pasok at 12.6% nationally. At first, Androulakis was seen as a potential coalition partner for Mitsotakis, but Androulakis' relationship with the prime minister soured when he discovered he was under state surveillance.
The wiretapping scandal that emerged last year and led to the resignation of the intelligence chief and Mitsotakis' nephew does not appear to have had a significant impact on the Conservative Party's results. The election result exceeded the 6-8% margin predicted by pollsters before the election. The recent train crash that killed 57 in February also appeared to have little effect on the vote.
Despite the challenges and inequalities facing the country, pensioner Glykeria Tzima expressed her satisfaction with the election results and emphasized the continuation of the progress made in the past four years. On the other hand, Georgios Koulouris, a miner living in Australia who returned to the polls, highlighted the deep-rooted problems and inequality that persist in Greece, including stagnant wages and skyrocketing rents, which contribute to the brain drain phenomenon.
