2023-06-25 04:34:16
For the second time in five weeks, the Greeks will elect a new parliament on Sunday. Around 9.8 million eligible voters in Greece are called on Sunday to elect a new parliament. Observers expect a clear victory for the conservative party Nea Dimokratia (ND) under Kyriakos Mitsotakis, according to more than 40 percent polls. The second strongest force could be the Alliance of the Radical Left (Syriza) with its leader Alexis Tsipras with around 20 percent of the vote. There are a total of 32 parties to choose from.
The new election had become necessary because the parties did not agree on a coalition after the election five weeks ago. Mitsotakis’ party Nea Dimokratia (ND) emerged as the clear winner from the vote on May 21 with 40.8 percent of the votes, but failed to achieve an absolute majority. A new electoral law will apply on Sunday, according to which the strongest party will get up to 50 bonus seats. Mitsotakis is therefore now hoping for a clear, absolute majority.
Polling stations open at 7:00 a.m. local time (6:00 a.m. CEST) and close twelve hours later. Immediately afterwards there are the first forecasts based on surveys of voters. Meaningful results based on counted votes are expected around 8:00 p.m. (7:00 p.m. CEST).
Published/Updated: Christian Schubert, Rome Published/Updated: , Recommendations: 20 Published/Updated:
This time, however, a special feature of the electoral law applies: 40 percent of the votes would be enough for the ND for an absolute majority, because the strongest party automatically receives a bonus of at least 20 mandates in parliament with a total of 300 seats. Mitsotakis could thus have a comfortable majority of 160 seats.
The conservative, who has governed alone for the past four years, presents himself as the guarantor of stability, a social market economy, investment and tax breaks. During the election campaign, he repeatedly referred to the successes of his reign. The New Dimokratia had streamlined and digitized the mighty state apparatus. Mitsotakis managed to attract international companies and investors to the country. Unemployment fell to eleven percent (2019: 20 percent), pensions and the minimum wage were slightly increased.
Syriza boss Alexis Tsipras, on the other hand, is fighting for his political survival in this election. His election campaign, which portrayed Mitsotakis and his reign in a negative light and warned against a kind of conservative regime and social poverty, does not seem to have caught on with the voters. Syriza’s program, which promised higher minimum wages and pensions and the expansion of the welfare state, also failed, especially since Syriza never explained how the expenditures should be financed.
And so the party plummeted in the parliamentary elections five weeks ago, scoring just 20 percent, down 11.5 percentage points from four years earlier. Since then, criticism of the party leader has been growing. If the election result is bad again, it would be Tsipras’ fifth defeat in a row after the 2019 parliamentary elections, the European and local elections and the most recent elections – and possibly his end as party leader.
Although the Greeks are still among the people most at risk of poverty in a European comparison, the situation has improved at least slightly since Mitsotakis first took office in 2019. That is why many are now banking on political stability instead of renewed high government spending. These had almost driven the country to ruin in the last decade.
In addition to ND and Syriza, another 30 parties will be starting on Sunday. Among the strongest are the social democratic Pasok, which was last at 11.5 percent, the Greek Communist Party (KKE) with 7.2 percent and the right-wing populist Elliniki Lisi (Greek Solution) with 4.2 percent. In Greece there is a three percent threshold for entering parliament.
#general #election #weeks #Greece