The center-right party New Democracy succeeded in the repeated election, gaining a majority in the parliament, and Kyriakos Mitsotakis will be prime minister for another four years, writes Reuters.
New Democracy won the support of 40.5% of voters and thus 158 seats in the 300-member parliament. This is almost 20% more than the radical left party Syriza, which won at the height of the Greek debt crisis in 2015 and led the country for four years.
Mitsotakis told a cheering crowd at the party’s headquarters in Athens that he feels an even greater obligation to serve the country to the best of his ability.
The vote on Sunday, the 25th of June, is a shameful defeat for the left, which lost more than 30 seats.
Alexis Tsipras, leader of the Syriza party, said the result was bad for democracy and society, and said his party had ended a tremendous and creative historical cycle that should be looked at with pride.
The scion of a powerful political family, Mitsotakis has promised to increase income from tourism, create jobs and increase wages to bring them closer to the level of the European Union. Also,
the conservative politician has promised to continue reforms to improve the country’s credit rating
after the severe crisis that has been affecting Greece for almost a decade. He was in the position of prime minister from 2019, and in May he handed over the reins to the interim prime minister for a month after he did not get a persuasive victory in the elections.
The Greek parliamentary elections were held for the first time this year on the 21st of May, and no party won a majority. On the 25th of June, a different election system was used, which gave additional seats in the parliament depending on voter support.
The pandemic and the tragic train crash in February have highlighted weaknesses in Greece’s health and public transport systems, and voters are also weighing on rising costs and economic hardship. Sunday’s vote was also overshadowed by this month’s shipwreck in which hundreds of migrants lost their lives. The tragic event also sheds light on the parties’ different positions on migration issues.