Greece: Landslide Victory for Conservative New Democracy Party

Former Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis, leader of the conservative New Democracy party. Jun. 25, 2023.

Published 25 June 2023

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The turnout in Sunday's elections was only 52.75%.

Greece's conservative New Democracy party won Sunday's legislative elections, gaining a comfortable parliamentary majority that will allow it to form a government for a second four-year term.

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Nearly complete results showed Kyriakos Mitsotakis' party with 40.56 percent of the vote, while his main rival, Alexis Tsipras of the leftist Syriza party, got 17.83 percent.

The New Democracy Party thus secured 158 seats in the 300-seat parliament, with a new electoral law granting the winning party extra seats. "The people have given us a safe majority. Major reforms will move forward quickly," Mitsotakis said in a televised address.

In the last elections, held on May 21, Mitsotakis secured a second four-year term as prime minister after New Democracy won by a wide margin (41%), but failed to win the 151 seats needed in parliament to form a government. He decided not to try to form a coalition government, preferring to take his chances in a second election.

On that occasion, the Syriza party came in second, behind New Democracy, with 20 percentage points.

Greece's conservative New Democracy party leader Kyriakos Mitsotakis vows to speed up reforms following his landslide victory in the country's second election in five weeks pic.twitter.com/yMKqKGRbX5
— TRT World Now (@TRTWorldNow) June 25, 2023

In total, six parties exceeded the 3% threshold to enter Parliament: the social democratic PASOK party (11.86%), the Communist Party of Greece (KKE) (7.67%), and the far-right Spartans party, backed by jailed lawmaker Ilias Kasidiaris of the banned neo-Nazi Golden Dawn, obtained more than 4.68%.

The far-right populist Greek Solution party (4.45%) and the far-right religious Niki (Victory) party (3.70%), in addition to the Candle for Freedom party (3.17%) founded by former parliament speaker Zoe Constantopoulou, also exceeded the 3% electoral threshold.

Sunday's vote came just over a week after an overloaded fishing boat heading from Libya to Italy capsized and sank off the western coast of Greece, leaving hundreds dead and missing. This incident sparked criticism and called into question the performance of the Greek authorities and the country's strict migration policy.

However, in today's elections, domestic economic issues were at the forefront of voters' minds. Mitsotakis' campaign has focused on securing Greece's economic growth and political stability.