Kyriakos Mitsotakis is hours away from getting what he wanted. When he immediately rejected the mandate given by President Katerina Sakellaropoulous to form a government in the aftermath of the May 21 parliamentary election, the leader of the New Democracy (center right) knew he had the momentum of victory in his favour. a divided opposition and a new amendment to the current electoral law favoring the winner. “This Sunday, the country will have a stable government, with the self-confidence of the New Democracy at the helm,” he announced at a rally in northern Greece on Tuesday.
Still, despite appearing confident, he reminded the Greeks that he needed them to leave their homes and go to the polling stations. “I don’t take the results of the polls for granted in any way,” he said in an interview with SKAI TV on Friday. Mitsotakis, 55, recalled that last month’s election results made no sense and called on everyone to exercise their right to vote again. “The greater the people’s mandate, the greater the responsibilities and demands.”
In elections a month ago, New Democracy was five places short of an absolute majority in parliament, but is now benefiting from the new electoral law.
Mitsotakis also commented on the prospect that the future parliamentary configuration could have up to nine parties, some of them from the two ideological extremes, which is a paradox for the former and likely future prime minister, referring to a lack of pluralism “let even many parties enter”. And he warned: “Too many extremist voices in parliament can lead to a democratic cacophony.”
“Unfortunately, citizens are forced to go to the polls again and I regret that the new parliament may not be pluralistic, even if there are many parties.” Kyriakos Mitsotakis
According to polls, up to five parties will be able to pass the 3% barrier to elect deputies: the far left, two splits of Syriza – Mera25, from former finance minister Yanis Varoufakis, and Via da Liberdade, from former parliament speaker Zoë Konstantopoulou. The extreme right, the religious and pro-Russian Victory Party, the populist and nationalist Greek Solution. And even the obscure Spartan Party, which received the support of the Greeks, successor to the neo-Nazi Golden Dawn, was forbidden by the Justice Department to run for elections.
After Mitsotakis pledges to cut taxes, raise salaries and implement reforms, Mitsotakis can begin a new four-year term. It is enough to stop the voters. The electoral amendment now in force rewards the party or coalition with the most votes with an additional 20 seats if it obtains at least 25% of the vote and up to 50 seats if it reaches the 40% threshold, roughly New Democracy’s result. The leader of New Democracy has taken advantage of the positive economic data and his continued call for political stability, in contrast to the years of bankruptcy and the massive social crisis.
The poll average gives Mitsotakis’ party 42% of the voting intentions, two percentage points more than in the May poll.
In May, at the time of the vote, the Greeks wanted nothing to do with the scandal of listening to the opposition and the polls indicate that they will also not reflect the tragedy of the deaths of hundreds of migrants who were on a trawler in the Ionian Sea. Although Syriza leader Alexis Tsipras turned the disaster into a campaign theme by reiterating the many doubts that had been raised about the way the Greek Coast Guard had handled the situation, Mitsotakis’ arguments will have won by praising the Coast Guard for the people rescued and by blaming the “miserable drug dealers”.
Tsipras, analysts say, failed in tone and substance. On the one hand, the former prime minister was accused of running a vague and negative campaign and failing to build bridges with the remaining left parties for a post-electoral coalition. “Syriza was counting on outrage, and after so many years of financial crisis and pandemic, people wanted to feel stability,” political scientist Petros Ioannidis told Politico.
On the other hand, Tsipras is eager to show that he is moderate now. When he tried to compete for Mitsotakis’s electorate, he failed to hold onto left-wing voters: polls attributed 29% to Syriza, eventually gaining 20% in May, a value the average polls continue to assign. Another electoral defeat leaves Tsipras in a very vulnerable position.
Source: DN
