In today’s special edition, we are looking at this weekend’s yet another round of elections in Greece. Enjoy!
Diplo Focus on the Greek Election: Winner takes all
On Sunday, Greek incumbent (and future) Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis led his centre-right party, New Democracy (EPP), to a comfortable victory and consequent majority for the next four years.
Outperforming all Eve’s predictions, Mitsotakis and his party got 40,5 per cent of the votes and 108 seats in the Parliament, plus a bonus of 50 seats under a new Greek system that boosts the largest party.
This is the main reason the Prime Minister called for a second round after coming out victorious after the election of May 21. Still, without an outright majority, he wanted to win the game, set, match, and eat almost the entire cake to celebrate.
On the other side of the spectrum, it is time to lick their wounds and reflect on mistakes: the far-left party Syriza (The Left/GUE) of the former Prime Minister, Alexis Tsipras, came out with only 17.8 per cent and 47 seats, a score just sufficient to avoid a collapse; socialist party PASOK (S&D) had 11,9 per cent and 32 seats and the communist KKE (Non-Attached) had 7,6 per cent and 20 seats. The math is easy: even by putting all their efforts into a leftist coalition, these parties are destined for irrelevance for the next five years.
The vote came just over a week after a migrant ship capsized and sank off the west coast of Greece, leaving several hundred dead and missing and calling into question the actions of the Greek authorities and the country’s strict migration policy. However, despite the recent tragedy (and the spyware Pegasus affair), the premier’s hard line was again rewarded.
Speaking of hard lines, the far-right also made gains, with the last-minute contender, the Spartan Party scoring 4,7 per cent and securing 13 seats in the Parliament, plus 22 seats split between other fringe parties. However, Prime Minister Mitsotakis will not need their support to govern, mainly because the Spartan Party was backed by a jailed MP from the neo-Nazi (and banned) Golden Dawn party, Ilias Kasidiaris. Still, these lovely guys could influence the government’s policies on several hot topics (immigration and Turkey, among others) from the new institutional platform to broadcast their ideas.
The participation rate was 52.7 per cent, the interior ministry reported. We are witnessing a typical declining trend, especially in the Mediterranean countries, but not too bad considering a summer second round of elections separated from the first by only three weeks.
Mitsotakis has capitalised after bringing the Greek economy back to stability and growth after a severe debt crisis and three international bailouts. The new-not-new Prime Minister stated that New Democracy has ‘lofty goals’ to transform Greece with better public health service and education.
The most conservative Parliament since democracy was restored in the country in 1974 indicates the new direction the European Union is taking. The President of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, was elected in 2019 after the centre-right EPP striked a deal with the socialists of S&D and the centrists of Renew Europe. In 2024, once secured the nomination, she is rumored to stay head of the EU’s top institution.
After the exploit of Giorgia Meloni’s Fratelli d’Italia (ECR) in Italy, the evergreen Viktor Orban in Hungary, Poland, Finland and the Czech Republic, centre-right and conservative governments become way more influential in the Council.
Will this consolidated trend bring a fatal alliance between the centre-right EPP and the more conservative ECR given the next year’s European elections?
After Greece, will Spain be the next blue wave in Europe? Rendez-vous on July 23 (with a cocktail, of course).
