Greece - June 2023

Centre-right leader Kyriakos Mitsotakis has won a second term as Prime Minister. His party, New Democracy, received 40.8 per cent of the vote in the second round of elections, securing 158 out of the parliament’s 300 seats, under the new system that provides the winning party with 50 bonus seats. Women will make up 23 per cent of the new legislature. The main opposition party, leftist Syriza, scored 20 per cent of the vote, the biggest loss margin for any opposition party since 1974. Centre-left Pasok received 11.4 per cent of the vote, while the far-left Communist Party of Greece took the fourth largest share of votes with 7.2 per cent. Far-right parties made significant gains, as Spartans, a Eurosceptic and ultranationalist party backed by Ilias Kasidiaris, the jailed neo-Nazi leader of the banned Golden Dawn party, entered the parliament. New Democracy’s win comes despite Greece’s deadliest migrant shipwreck in years, and following promises of economic growth reforms, and of continued financial stability by turning the country into a pro-business eurozone member. Voter turnout was 61.1 per cent, an increase of more than 3 per cent as compared to the 2019 elections.

Sources: Greek Ministry of Interior, Euronews, Al Jazeera, International IDEA