Voters in Greece are heading to the polls for a second time in five weeks on Sunday, where former Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis hoping for a landslide victory. Polling stations have opened at 7 a.m (0400 GMT) and will close at 1600 GMT. The results will be announced around 1700 GMT.
Mitsotakis’s conservative centre-right New Democracy party had a landslide victory securing 41% votes in the election conducted on May 21 2024. New Democracy had a 20-point margin over the centre-left Syriza party of Alexis Tsipras. However, due to the new electoral system of proportional representation, the New Democracy fell short of the majority needed in the Greek Parliament to rule without a coalition.
Wanting to avoid a coalition to get a full majority for his party to govern alone, Mitsotakis called for a second election. He subsequently stepped down to comply with the constitutional mandate, allowing a caretaker government to assume control of the country. In today’s repeat election, the victor will get 20 to 50 bonus points giving New Democracy a comfortable parliamentary majority.
Greece voters support Mitsotakis
Image Source: Reuters
Mitsotakis, who held the position of Prime Minister of Greece from July 2019 to May 2024, received a commendation for his adept handling of the Greek economy. His effective leadership restored stability and growth in the country’s economy following a prolonged period of financial turmoil marked by a decade-long debt crisis and three instances of international bailouts.
Despite certain recent events, including a wiretapping scandal in 2022 and a train crash that killed 57 people in February 2024, the result of the May election proves that Mitsotakis’s image has not been marred, and the Greek voters are ready to give him a second term in the Parliament.
His primary rival, Alexis Tsipras, Prime Minister of Greece from 2015 to 2019, is facing an uphill task. In the May election, his Syriza party severely underperformed, winning only 20 per cent of the ballots compared to the 31 per cent vote share in the 2019 elections.
The opinion polls are projecting a landslide victory for the New Democracy over Syriza. The unwavering support to the conservatives is because the voters need economic security, which they believe Mitsotakis is eligible to provide.
Greece migrant boat tragedy
The repeat election comes only 11 days after the Greek migrant boat disaster. The overcrowded fishing vessel carrying asylum seekers sank in the Mediterranean Sea off the Peloponnese coast on June 14, drawing severe criticism to the Greek government for failing to handle the issue. Eighty-two passengers are declared dead, with more than 500 still missing.Â
Mitsotakis has a strict migration policy. During the election rallies, he has repeated his stance on illegal migration. He has promised the voters that he has protected Greece’s land and sea borders, severely reducing the arrival of asylum seekers. He has supported the Greek coastguard’s right to “intercept” boats illegally entering sovereign waters.
Tsipras has criticised Mitsotakis over his policy on migration issues. Tsipiras said about how he handled the 2015 European migrant crisis, where more than one million asylum seekers travelled through Greece. However, Mitsotakis still continued with his hard stance on migration and blamed the traffickers for the disaster.Â
The migrant boat disaster has sidelined other issues like the living costs and the February rail crash. Nevertheless, the Greek voters will favour a strict and conservative policy towards illegal migration that will prove beneficial to the New Democracy party.
