Conservative leader Kyriakos Mitsotakis is on track to win parliamentary elections in Greece, with a result that should allow him to form the one-party government he has been seeking, according to exit polls.
With voting closed for the second general election in a month, Mitsotakis’ New Democracy party is expected to take a whopping 44 percent of the vote, well ahead of the left-wing Syriza party led by former Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras. appears in forecasts at less than 20 percent.
If confirmed, the margin would be the largest for the Conservatives in nearly 50 years, rewarding voters for the work that has brought Greece back to economic health after a long crippling debt crisis.
Mitsotakis, 55, who led Greece through the coronavirus pandemic to two consecutive years of strong growth, had already won a landslide election victory a month ago.
But after falling five seats short of forming a one-party government, the Harvard graduate refused to form a coalition, sending 9.8 million Greek voters back to the polls.
Mitsotakis, who comes from one of Greece’s most influential political families, said on Sunday that the country “voted for the second time in a few weeks to get a stable and effective government”.
With Tsipras’s defeat already largely a foregone conclusion, the left-wing voter could only ask that Mitsotakis not be given such a large margin that he would get a government with an absolute majority.
But, in a blow to Tsipras, exit polls suggest his party won even fewer votes than it did in May.
Performance
Mitsotakis became prime minister in 2019, surpassing his predecessor Tsipras by promising to put a decade of economic crisis behind him.
That election was the first in the EU country’s post-bailout era, at a time when businesses and workers were suffering under the weight of heavy taxes imposed by Syriza to build a budget surplus that international creditors was demanded.
Over the next four years, the tax burden eased, and although the Covid-19 pandemic wiped out vital tourism revenues in Greece, the country has bounced back strongly with growth of 8.3% in 2021 and 5.9 % for the past year.
This was helped in part by more than €57 billion paid out by the government to cushion the effects of the health crisis and inflation.
Mitsotakis was also licensed to spend more, under the more lenient, pandemic-era EU rules.
Highlighting Greece’s newfound economic health in his re-election bid, the New Democracy leader said his conservative government had cut 50 different taxes, boosted national output by €29 billion and oversaw the biggest infrastructure upgrades since 1975.
The message seems to have resonated with voters, weary of Greece’s debt-ridden years, in which they have been awash with job losses, rising payments and failing businesses.
Migrant tragedy without electoral effect
Although Greece recently made headlines with the tragedy of a migrant shipwreck this month, the disaster had little impact on the election campaign.
In a rare reminder of the tragedy, a protester held an “I support the refugees” sign behind Mitsotakis as he addressed journalists after the vote, but the man was quickly removed by security.
For many, the focus of the campaign was entirely on the economy.
While inflation remains a major concern, Tsipras’ calls for wage increases have paid off.
For many Greeks, the Syriza man remains the prime minister who nearly pulled Greece out of the eurozone and the leader who reneged on his promise to end austerity to sign even more painful bailout terms for the country.
After losing four election races to Mitsotakis, a fifth defeat on Sunday could cost Tsipras his top Syriza job.
Meanwhile, the far right may be making a comeback, with three small nationalist parties potentially crossing the three percent threshold to enter parliament.
One of them, Spartiaten, was arrested by former spokesman for the neo-Nazi party Golden Dawn, Ilias Kasidiaris.
Before the vote, Mitsotakis warned against extreme votes, saying that allowing them into parliament would only cause “democratic cacophony”.
Source: DN
