Greek Elections: New Democracy Party Wins Landslide Victory

Facts

• Greece's reformist Prime Kyriakos Mitsotakis secured a second four-year term on Sunday after his conservative New Democracy (ND) party won a landslide in repeat parliamentary elections.¹
• With most votes counted, the center-right party won just over 40% of the vote, giving it 158 seats in the 300-seat parliament, while Alex Tsipras' left-wing Syriza party received barely 18% of the vote. PASOK came in third with about 12%, followed by the Communist Party with almost 8%.²
• It was the second parliamentary election in Greece within five weeks after Mitsotakis' New Democracy won the initial legislative elections in May but failed to secure an absolute majority due to the system of proportional representation.³
• After Sunday's win, Mitsotakis, who had campaigned on ensuring economic growth and political stability, pledged to speed up reforms to "increase salaries and reduce inequality," along with establishing "better and free public health care."⁴
• Meanwhile, Tsipras, who served as Prime Minister from 2015 to 2019, conceded defeat and said he believed the election result was "mainly negative for society and for democracy," — referring to the entry of three small far-right parties into parliament.⁵
• In an unexpected development, the new and deeply anti-migration Spartans party with ties to the neo-Nazi Golden Dawn, the nationalist party Greek Solution and the ultra-religious Niki party also succeeded on Sunday in surpassing the 3% threshold for entry into parliament.⁶

Sources: ¹Al Jazeera, ²GreekReporter.com, ³Euronews, ⁴Associated Press, ⁵ABC News, and ⁶CNN.

Narratives

• Conservative narrative, as provided by Guardian. The triumph of New Democracy over Syriza shows that Greek voters want to continue the country's economic recovery course, which Prime Minister Mitsotakis successfully initiated during his first term in office. After the country's traumatic financial crisis, Mitsotakis proved that the Greek state apparatus is not reform-resistant, reduced unemployment, lowered taxes, and attracted foreign investment. Voters have good reason to trust that the liberal reformist will continue the Greek success story with a strong electoral mandate behind him.
• Left narrative, as provided by Neos Kosmos. New Democracy's victory was to be expected given the fragmentation of the left-wing political spectrum. What makes the elections worrisome, however, is the entry of three xenophobic far-right parties into the Greek parliament. While the left will need time to recover, Greece is following the right-wing trend in other Western European countries. Particularly about social policy, social and civil rights, immigration, and perhaps foreign policy, there is every reason to be concerned about the conservative government's future course.