Landslide victory by New Democracy
- Written by E.Tsiliopoulos
Greece made a dramatic political "volte-face" on Sunday with a landslide victory by center-right New Democracy (ND) party and its leader, Kyriakos Mitsotakis, over incumbent SYRIZA, ending the first-ever leftist administration after four-and-a-half years in power and sending a once firebrand Alexis Tsipras to the opposition.
New Democracy won by large margin and forms a majority government, based on the results of the general elections in Greece on Sunday, July 7, with 90.85 pct of votes counted. A total of six parties will enter parliament based on this result and without the presence of far-right Golden Dawn. A breakdown of each party's percentage of the vote and seats in parliament is as follows:
New Democracy - 39.78 pct and 158 seats
SYRIZA - 31.56 pct and 86 seats
ΚΙΝΑL - 7.97 pct and 22 seats
Communist Party of Greece (ΚΚΕ) - 5.34 pct and 15 seats
Εlliniki Lysi (Greek Solution) - 3.74 pct and 10 seats
MeRA25 - 3.47 pct and 9 seats
For Tsipras, the defeat marks his third in 2019, after disappointing results in the May 26 European Parliament election and two consecutive Sundays of local government races in late May and early June. SYRIZA's second-place showing in the former and failure to elect but a handful of candidates in municipal and regional races forced the outgoing premier to declare a snap election on July 7.
The result comes almost four years to the date when Tsipras, SYRIZA and the sum total of Greece's anti-bailout and anti-austerity bloc celebrated a massive "No" result (61.31 percent) in a controversial referendum held on July 5 over creditors' - previously withdrawn - terms.
Related items
- Mitsotakis sends reminder: Deadline approaching for postal voting applications
- The Greek brand found in 220 hotels in three countries
- Italian researcher: Precise location of Plato's burial site revealed by ancient papyrus
- African dust makes Athens sky orange
- Elon Musk was dazzled by... Eleni Tsolaki - "A wonderful way to wake up in Greece," he commented
Latest from E.Tsiliopoulos
- Mitsotakis sends reminder: Deadline approaching for postal voting applications
- The Greek brand found in 220 hotels in three countries
- Italian researcher: Precise location of Plato's burial site revealed by ancient papyrus
- African dust makes Athens sky orange
- Elon Musk was dazzled by... Eleni Tsolaki - "A wonderful way to wake up in Greece," he commented