Three things stand out in Greece’s two consecutive parliamentary elections held with little tension and high abstention: a personal triumph for Kyriakos Mitsotakis, leader of the centre-right party New Democracy (ND), the implosion of the radical left party of SYRIZA, and the rise of the far right – albeit a fragmented one. The result will be a powerful prime minister leading a one-party government faced with a weak and divided opposition.
Political culture in Greece is inimical to compromise and coalition governments, hence the two consecutive parliamentary elections in the course of a bit more than a month in search of an absolute majority of seats for the biggest party. Mitsotakis has won his bet. He was helped though by an electoral system that gives a bonus to the biggest party: 40.6 per cent of votes cast and 158 out of 300 seats in the new parliament.
It has been very much a personal triumph for the leader of the ND who has won a second mandate and won more than double the votes cast for the second party. The ND is a broad church extending all the way from staunch conservatives to the liberal and reformist centre. Mitsotakis has managed to keep different strands together on a platform of stability and continuity, economic growth and liberal reforms, competence in foreign policy with the image of somebody who navigates skilfully in international waters, and last but not least, tough on immigration.
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