The party led by the current Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis won the Greek parliamentary elections, and he described the victory as a political earthquake, BBC writes.
The center-right party New Democracy won the support of 41% of the voters, which means that Mitsotakis’s party lacks only five seats to be in the majority. Mitsotakis has been congratulated by his centre-left rival Alexis Tsipras, whose party won relatively little support, just 20% of all votes.
Mitsotakis’s party won 146 seats in the parliament, while 151 seats are needed for a majority.
The vote map released by the Interior Ministry shows that New Democracy was supported by a majority of voters in all voting districts of Greece with one exception. The Prime Minister’s remarks about running the country without the help of others mean that he will not seek coalition partners, but instead will opt to win additional seats in the second round of elections at the end of June. Greek President Katerina Sakellaropoulou will offer Mitsotakis to form a coalition, but he is likely to reject the offer. After that, the president will offer a chance to the next two parties with the largest number of seats, and if even then a government is not formed,
caretaker government will be formed until the second round of elections.
The result is a major disappointment for Tsipras, who called the results of his party particularly negative. Tsipras came to power in 2015 when he promised to resist austerity measures demanded by international lenders. He eventually had to agree to the terms of the lenders.
Mitsotakis comes from a powerful Greek political dynasty.
His father, Konstantinos Mitsotakis, was the prime minister of Greece in the early 1990s, his sister was the minister of foreign affairs, while Mitsotakis’ son is currently the mayor of Athens.
The train disaster that claimed dozens of lives in February cast a heavy shadow over the election campaign, but did not seem to affect the results. After the train crash between Athens and Thessaloniki, opposition parties said the tragedy highlighted the country’s inability to function normally as it continues to suffer from the effects of the economic crisis and lack of investment in the infrastructure sector.
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