Voters rewarded incumbent Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis for keeping the promises of the last election of the New Democracy party. However, the formation of a government is unlikely.
ATHENS The centre-right New Democracy maintained its position as the early favorite and won again in the Greek parliamentary elections.
Prime minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis according to the party, even better than the 2019 election, almost 41 percent was a direct political earthquake. The difference with the second-placed leftist Syriza was a whopping 20 percentage points.
Pasok of the social democrats, which reached third place, also increased its popularity.
Here we collected the four most interesting excerpts from the election results.
1. The sitting prime minister defeated the previous one
The elections were extraordinary, because for the first time in 30 years, the current and previous prime ministers of the country were facing each other.
Voters could compare what the country “gets” if Kyriakos Mitsotakis or a leftist come to power again Alexis Tsipras.
The majority was appealed to by Kyriakos Mitsotakis sticking to his election promises.
The new democracy lowered taxes and raised pensions and the minimum wage during its reign. About 300,000 new jobs opened up in the private sector.
During the corona pandemic, society was supported with 50 billion euros.
In the new term, Mitsotakis promises to raise the average wages of Greeks close to the EU average.
2. Relinquishing the winner’s bonus places prevents monopoly
With its winning result, New Democracy does not get an absolute majority in the parliament, 151 out of 300 seats.
In the last election, it formed the government alone with 50 bonus seats. The current proportional election method does not guarantee the winner bonus seats.
The number of seats for the parties is also affected by the percentage of factions outside the parliament.
3. Up to 16-year-olds can vote
Everyone who turns 17 this year could vote for the first time in the elections.
Important issues for young people were the improvement of the education system and youth unemployment.
A train accident in Greece in the winter, in which many young people died, motivated many young people to vote for smaller parties that have not been in power.
Even 16-year-olds are now voting in Greek elections – the prime minister is wooing young people on Tiktok with jokes about nose piercings
4. New elections very likely
With their number of seats, Uusi demokratia and Pasok will be able to assemble a majority government.
The cooperation is hindered by differences in substantive issues and the fact that Pasok does not want Mitsotakis to be the prime minister of the government.
The new democracy is aiming for new elections in a month.
At that time, it can achieve an absolute majority, because in the next election the winner is entitled to bonus seats in proportion to the number of votes.