Greece 2nd General Election...Will Mitsotakis Secure Re-election?

In Greece, the possibility of a second early general election is increasing just one day after the first general election ended. If a coalition government is not formed after the first election, the second election will be held, and the leading party can receive up to 50 additional seats even with the current level of votes, allowing it to govern as a single party.

On the 22nd (local time), major foreign media reported that Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis returned the mandate to form a government to President Katerina Sakellaropoulou and is pushing for an early general election.

Prime Minister Mitsotakis, aiming for single-party rule, said, "I do not want to waste valuable time," as he returned the mandate to President Sakellaropoulou. He stated, "In the next election, New Democracy will secure a strong majority of seats," and added, "I will push for a second general election as soon as possible."

He mentioned that the second general election could be held on June 25, a week earlier than initially expected. Mitsotakis said he would contact the leaders of the second and third parties to propose returning the mandate promptly so that the second election can be held quickly.

Experts predict that since the leaders of the second and third parties are both negative about forming a coalition, the likelihood of a second general election on June 25 is high.

New Democracy (ND), the single ruling party led by Prime Minister Mitsotakis, achieved a landslide victory beyond expectations in the previous day's general election. According to the vote count on the day, New Democracy secured 40.79% of the vote, winning 146 out of 300 seats. It is 5 seats short of the majority threshold (151 seats) required to form a single-party government.

The main opposition party, the Coalition of the Radical Left (SYRIZA, 20.07%), led by former Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras, won 71 seats. The Movement for Change (PASOK-KINAL), a center-left party led by Nikos Androulakis, followed with 41 seats.

In Greece, if no single party wins a majority in the general election, the mandate to form a government is sequentially given to the first to third parties for three days each. If all parties fail to form a government, a caretaker government is formed, and Greece holds a second general election.

If the leading party in the second general election, held within 40 days of the first, wins, it can receive bonus seats ranging from a minimum of 20 to a maximum of 50 depending on the vote share. Therefore, if New Democracy maintains its momentum in the second election, it can easily achieve a single-party majority.

Prime Minister Michotakis of Greece.
Photo by Reuters Yonhap News

Pre-election polls showed a narrow gap of only 6 to 7 percentage points between New Democracy and SYRIZA, suggesting a close race, but in the actual election, New Democracy defied expectations.

New Democracy led SYRIZA by more than 20 percentage points, which AP News reported as the largest vote margin since the first democratic election in Greece after the end of the military dictatorship in 1974.

Since coming to power in the 2019 general election, Prime Minister Mitsotakis has led a dramatic revival of the Greek economy through market-friendly policies during his four-year term. After the 2012 sovereign default crisis that caused Greece's credit rating to plummet to the lowest level, the Greek economy showed high growth rates of 8.4% in 2021 and 5.9% in 2022, bringing credit rating recovery within reach.

However, despite continuous setbacks such as last year's wiretapping scandal dubbed the 'Greek Watergate' and the head-on train collision disaster in February this year, voters once again gave their support to the ruling party that drove economic growth.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.