Greece Elections: Ruling Conservatives Win Majority

Facts

• Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis's center-right New Democracy party won 40.8% of the vote in Sunday's elections but fell short of the absolute majority needed to form a government on its own.¹
• With nearly all the votes counted, Mitsotakis's party is 20 points ahead of Alexis Tsipras' center-left Syriza party, which received about 20% of the vote. The socialist Pasok party came in third with 11.5% of the vote.²
• Referring to the election results as a "political earthquake," Mitsotakis said his party had received the mandate to "govern independently and strongly" and indicated he would seek a runoff election to prevent a coalition government.³
• The elections were held under a new proportional representation system, in which a party must receive about 45% of the vote to win the election outright. With Mitsotakis on Monday rejecting coalition negotiations, a caretaker government will call fresh elections in which the winning party must receive at least 37% of the vote.⁴
• Meanwhile, calling the results "extremely negative," Tsipras said that Syriza – which reportedly lost 700K voters to other leftist parties since the 2019 elections – will make the necessary changes to win "the next crucial and final electoral battle."⁵
• Greece's national debt stands at around 170% of its gross domestic product, and the country has one of the highest rates of people at risk of poverty, with real income decreasing by 7.4% in 2022 due to high inflation.⁶

Sources: ¹Guardian, ²BBC News, ³Amna, ⁴CNN, ⁵Euractiv, and ⁶POLITICO.

Narratives

• Narrative A, as provided by Wall Street Journal. New Democracy's resounding victory indicates that Greeks want Mitsotakis to continue on the path of economic recovery, reforms, and stability. After the country's severe debt crisis in the 2010s, economic growth has resumed, and exports and the investment climate have improved thanks to New Democracy's initiatives. Aided by EU funds and a business-friendly government that has restored investor confidence, Greece is on the right track.
• Narrative B, as provided by Guardian. Mitsotakis won because Syriza weakened the left by bowing to the demands of big money and the EU troika while rejecting to form a leftist alliance and providing a convincing alternative for the country. As Greece is a prime example of how pleasing investors and the EU financial apparatus through "reforms" do not translate into better living conditions for ordinary citizens, its opposition parties must wake up, collaborate, and offer a solution to fix the nation's economic, social, and environmental woes if they dream of getting anywhere close to winning office.