Greece’s Mitsotakis seeks second vote after election win

Despite winning Sunday’s vote, the ruling New Democracy party still lacked an absolute majority to govern.

Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis said he would not form a coalition government after his party won Sunday’s election but lacked a majority.

Mitsotakis is now hoping for new elections on June 25 after President Katerina Sakellaropoulou formally offered him the chance to form a coalition under the constitution.

His party, the centre-right New Democracy (ND), won 40.79 percent of the vote, double the left-wing opposition party Syriza with 20.07 percent.

The socialist PASOK party came third with 11.46 percent, while 61 percent of the population turned up at the polls on Sunday.

Using the proportional representation voting system, ND secured only 146 of the 300 seats, leaving them five short of a governing majority.

The second round of elections returns to the previous system of awarding the first party an additional 50 seats, so that whoever receives the most votes has a comfortable majority.

But Mitsotakis’ party outperformed forecasts, and its profit margin was the largest since 1974, when Greece’s first democratic elections were held after the fall of the seven-year military dictatorship.

Sunday’s election result was also a major boost for his government, which has faced a wiretapping scandal, the pandemic, a cost-of-living crisis and a deadly train accident which led to protests.

“The dynamics of the result were more than clear: citizens want a strong government, with a four-year term, (to carry out) bolder reforms,” ​​Mitsotakis said after his victory, who he said supported his party for “autonomy” rule.

Analyst Wolfango Piccoli told the Associated Press that Greek voters put the economy and political stability above everything else.

“ND’s overwhelming performance is largely due to its positive economic track record over the past four years,” the senior political risk analyst at Teneo told the AP.

“Syriza’s inability to convey a coherent and credible economic plan also helped Prime Minister Mitsotakis and his ND.”

Three of the largest parties are now given a three-day mandate to form a coalition government.

If no political party chooses to cooperate, this will pave the way for the appointment of a caretaker government until the next election.

PASOK spokesman Dimitris Mantzos told state broadcaster ERT on Monday: “I understand there is no room for convergence or cooperation.”

“I think we can go through to the second election.”