Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis, whose center-right New Democracy party has presided over strong post-COVID economic growth and which campaigned on an anti-mass-migration platform, won a resounding victory in parliamentary elections on Sunday, May 21st, but failed to secure enough seats to form a government.
With more than 90% of the ballots tallied as of late Sunday night, Mitsotakis’ New Democracy party outperformed polling predictions, securing more than 40% of the national vote, more than double the votes garnered by its primary rival, the Coalition of the Radical Left—Progressive Alliance, better known as SYRIZA, which saw its support slip by over 10%, the Greek newspaper Proto Thema reports.
If there are no drastic shifts in voting count patterns, the New Democracy party, which has governed Greece for the past four years, will sweep all but one of the country’s electoral districts.
Despite New Democracy’s electoral success, however, the percentage of votes the party managed to garner fell just short of what’s required to secure an outright majority in the 300-seat, unicameral Hellenic Parliament, due to Greece’s proportional representation electoral system. Thus, the party will either have to seek to form a coalition government with a smaller party or hold a second round of voting in an attempt to consolidate its victory.
“Greece needs a government that believes in reforms, and this cannot happen with a fragile government,” Mitsotakis said late Sunday night, signaling clearly that he would prefer to opt for a second round of elections to gain a majority. “New Democracy has the approval of the citizens to govern independently and strongly,” he added.
Alternatively, Mitsotakis could, in theory, seek to form a coalition with the social democratic Pasok, which took about 11% of the vote, or with the Greek Solution, a new national-conservative party that won nearly 5% of the vote. The prospects of forming either alliance, however, are quite low, per Mitsotakis’ past statements.
In an address to the Greek nation late Sunday night that came after the election’s results became apparent, Prime Minister Mitsotakis stated: “Without a doubt, the political earthquake that occurred today calls on us all to speed up the process for a definitive government solution so our country can have an experienced hand at its helm as soon as possible.”
It is worth noting that more than 40 years have passed since a ruling party in Greece has increased its share of the vote in an election.
“Without a shadow of a doubt, this is the best electoral performance of an incumbent government since Greece’s transition to democracy,” said Dimitris Papadimitriou, professor of political science at Manchester University.
A second round of voting, likely to take place in late June or July, will be carried out with a new electoral law—passed by Mitsotakis’ ruling government—which gives the party with the most votes in the first election as many as 50 bonus seats in a second round of voting.
