Ruling New Democracy Party Comfortably Placed To Form Govt In Greece After Elections

Greece Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis won the national elections in Greece on Sunday comfortably after his New Democracy Party secured 40.79 per cent votes with 146 seats in the new Parliament consisting of 300 seats. The PM who played a role in the economic recovery of Greece in the last two years, is in a position to form the new government by taking help of some other party since he only needs five seats for majority, but at the same time, he can call for another elections to ensure the majority of his own party so that he has no need to depend on any other party.

The 55-year-oldconservative Prime Minister made clear his preference. “The citizens want a strong government with a four-year horizon,” he said. “Today’s political earthquake calls on all of us to speed up the process for a definitive government solution,” he added. Syriza head and former Prime Minister Tsipras also indicated a new vote was likely, saying “the electoral cycle is not over yet”. The next battle, he said, will be “critical and final”. Syriza was the second largest party with71 seats and 20.07 votes and Communist KKE, fourth with 7.2 per cent votes and 26 seats.

From Monday, Greek President Katerina Sakellaropoulou will give the top three parties — New Democracy, Syriza and the socialist PASOK — three days each in turn to form a coalition government. PASOK with 41 seats may like to support the New Democracy Party but indications are that the present PM may not like to be controlled by PASHOK leaders in any way. PASHOK also is not going to support unconditionally. Syriza was in the Government and its leader Alexis Tsipras is highly respected for his leadership, but the present PM Mitsotakis has no intention to form any coalition with his main contender Tsipras. All indications are leading to a deadlock in ministry formation. The final position will be clear by Thursday.

If they all fail, President Sakellaropoulou will appoint a caretaker government to prepare new elections about a month later, probably in last week of June or early July. The election was held under a new law of proportional representation, which makes it particularly difficult for any party to win enough parliamentary seats to form a government on its own. If a second election is held, the law will change again, shifting to a system that rewards the leading party with bonus seats and making it easier for the frontrunner to secure a parliamentary majority. Sunday’s election is the first in Greece since its economy ceased being under strict supervision by international lenders who had provided bailout funds during the country’s nearly decade-long financial crisis.

Mitsotakis, a 55-year-old Harvard-educated former banking executive and global management firm consultant, won the last election in 2019 on a promise of business-oriented reforms and has promised to continue tax cuts, boost investments and bolster middle-class employment. His popularity took a hit following a February 28 rail disaster that killed 57 people after an intercity passenger train was accidentally put on the same rail line as an oncoming freight train. It was later revealed that train stations were poorly staffed and safety infrastructure broken and outdated.

Tsipras was prime minister during some of the most tumultuous years of Greece’s economic crisis, but the 48-year-old struggled to regain the wide support he enjoyed when he swept to power in 2015 on a promise of reversing bailout-imposed austerity measures. In some areas, the party trailed the third-ranked but once-dominant Panhellenic Socialist Movement (PASOK), led by 44-year-old Nikos Androulakis.

Tsipras called Mitsotakis on Sunday night to congratulate him on his victory. “The result is exceptionally negative for Syriza,” Tsipras said in initial statements after his party’s dramatic defeat became clear. “Fights have winners and losers.” Tsipras said his party would gather to examine the results and how they came about. “However, the electoral cycle is not yet over,” he said. “We don’t have the luxury of time. We must immediately carry out all the changes that are needed so we can fight the next crucial and final electoral battle with the best terms possible.”

As the massive gap between the first two parties became apparent, Syriza supporters expressed dismay. “I am very sorry about the terrible state of these people (who voted for New Democracy),” said Syriza supporter GeorgiKoulouri, standing near a Syriza campaign kiosk in central Athens. “People who understand their position — the poverty and the misery that they have been put into — and still vote for them, they deserve what they get.”

Greece’s once-dominant Pasok party, overtaken by Syriza during Greece’s 2009-2018 financial crisis, also fared well in Sunday’s vote, garnering just over 11 percent. Its leader, Nikos Androulakis, 44, was at the center of the wiretapping scandal in which his phone was targeted for surveillance. Androulakis’ poor relationship with Mitsotakis, whom he accuses of covering up the wiretapping scandal, mean a potential coalition deal with the conservatives would be difficult. His relationship with Tsipras is also poor after he accused him of trying to poach Pasok voters.

Since coming to power in 2019, Mitsotakis has delivered unexpectedly high growth, a steep drop in unemployment and a country on the brink of returning to investment grade on the global bond market for the first time since it lost market access in 2010 at the outset of the financial crisis.

Debts to the International Monetary Fund were paid off early. European governments and the IMF pumped 280 billion euros ($300 billion) into the Greek economy in emergency loans between 2010 and 2018 to prevent the eurozone member from bankruptcy. In return, they demanded punishing cost-cutting measures and reforms that saw the country’s economy shrink by a quarter.

For their part, Syriza and the rest of the Greek left have spent much of the campaign highlighting the scandals of New Democracy’s last four years, zeroing in on the surveillance scandal that revealed that the Greek government was wiretapping journalists and opposition politicians. (One of the people wiretapped was Nikos Androulakis, the Pasok leader currently also campaigning to be prime minister.) The surveillance scandal took up much of the debate between the candidates, with fingers being pointed toward Mitsotakis.

What lies ahead for Greece’s : combined Left. ? Greece’s Communist Party KKE was with Syriza during 2015 but the differences started to take place during the tenure of Tsipras government itself. KKE took strict position on austerity measures but Syriza leadership took the position that those were needed for bailing out the ailing economy.. Syriza and KKE have been fighting on economic issues since then. In the 2023 national elections, the combined vote of Syriza and KKE is 27..2 per cent and 97 seats, not bad for an European nation. KKE got 7.2 per cent on its own with 26 seats. There are other left wing groups which got less than 3 percent and could not win any Parliament seat. Can the Syriza and KKE join hands on the basis of a common programme? That is the question which is being asked by the European Left in the context of the Greece’s present political situation. (IPA Service)