The election results
The national elections held on Sunday 25th June produced a result which confirmed the general picture indicated by the polls but also held some surprises. Nea Dimokratia, with the help of the new system of “reinforced proportional representation”, achieved a comfortable majority of 158 seats. SYRIZA-Progressive Alliance retained its position as the official opposition party, albeit with a substantially reduced representation, while both PASOK and KKE registered marginal improvements on their position on the May 21st election in terms of votes, but with reduced numbers of seats because of the reapportionment of the bonus to the leading party.
Most notable was the entry into Parliament for the first time of three small parties, resulting in an 8-party Parliament, as against the 5 parties which gained entry on May 21st. The right-wing religious party Democratic Patriotic Movement – NIKI, headed by Dimitris Natsios, gained 10 seats, while former parliamentary Speaker Zoe Konstantopoulou’s Plevsi Eleftherias gained 8 seats. Both had remained just below the 3 per cent threshold in the May 21st election.
The major surprise however, was the entry of the far-right party Spartiates, which having polled less than 2 per cent in the May election, gained 12 seats. In a statement shortly after the result was known, its leader Vasilis Stigas paid tribute to the jailed former Chrysi Avgi MP Ilias Kasidiaris as the party’s motivating force – a fact which had it been revealed earlier might conceivably have led to the party’s candidacy being banned by the Supreme Court. The advance of the two right-wing parties was undoubtedly at the expense of Kyriakos Velopoulos’ Elliniki Lysi, which saw its participation reduced to 12 seats, from 16 in the May 21st election. Giannis Varoufakis’s Mera25 remained out of Parliament, as it had been after May 21st.
At around 53 per cent, turnout was considerably reduced over the May election’s 61 per cent, a fact which could be attributed to election fatigue – despite all the parties urging their supporters to make sure that they voted – but also to the many voters who preferred the beach to the voting booth on a very hot summer’s day. It was the lowest turnout since the fall of the Junta in 1974. However, the reduced participation did not materially change the outcome as far as the main parties were concerned.
Appointing the new Prime Minister
The official procedures for forming a new government went quickly into action. By 9.00 am on Monday, 99 per cent of the result had been confirmed – enough for the acting minister of the Interior Kalliope Spanou, who was tasked with overseeing the election, to convey the information officially to the Parliamentary Speaker Kostas Tasoulas. By 11.00 am the Speaker had handed the results to the Greek President Katerina Sakellaropoulou and shortly afterwards Kyriakos Mitsotakis arrived at the Presidential Mansion to receive the official invitation to form a government.
At around 1.00 pm, Mr Mitsotakis returned to the Presidential Mansion to be sworn in as Prime Minister by the Archbishop of Greece Ieronymos, in the presence of the President. The event was very much a family occasion: he arrived accompanied by his wife Mareva and his three children, and also present for the ceremony were his three siblings – Alexandra, Katerina and Dora (Bakogianni), who was re-elected as MP for Chania on Sunday – and other relatives and friends. A video of the full ceremony can be seen here. The party then proceeded on foot to the Megaro Maximou, where Mr Mitsotakis officially took over from the outgoing caretaker prime minister Ioannis Sarmas, thanking him for his service.
The Prime Minister’s victory speech
In a speech on Sunday night Kyriakos Mitsotakis thanked the voters for doing him the great honour of making him Prime Minister for the second time, and promised to redouble his efforts for the nation’s benefit.
“For the second time in a few weeks the citizens not only sent a message of continuation in the course we mapped out four years ago, but gave us a strong mandate – to proceed more rapidly on the road of the great changes which our country needs,” he said. “In a strong and decisive manner they definitively closed a traumatic cycle of lies and toxicity which was holding back the country and dividing society, thus inaugurating an era of solidarity and progress.
“I thank the citizens of Greece for their trust. This generous support increases the responsibility to respond to their hopes, while I personally now feel more heavily the duty to serve the country with all my powers. We never promise miracles, but I assure you that I will remain faithful to my national duty, with planning, dedication and chiefly with hard work. And I will not tolerate any conceit or any arrogant behaviour….The people gave us a large majority, so the major changes will proceed swiftly, because that is what the Greek people’s choice demands.”
Addressing himself to those who did not vote for Nea Dimokratia, or did not vote at all, he said “Let me promise once more that I will be Prime Minister for all Greeks, for problems have no colour and the citizens, especially the weakest, must feel that the government is at their side in every difficulty.”
On a more personal note, he said that on entering politics 20 years ago “I never imagined that I would today be standing before you and would have the great honour, this great responsibility, elected for a second time as a majority prime minister and indeed with a strong mandate. I worked very hard to get to this point, constantly trying to become better and to learn from mistakes. I would not have managed this however without my colleagues, whom I thank wholeheartedly. But the biggest thanks I owe to my family, to Mareva, to Sofia, to Konstantinos, to Daphne. In their own way, they kept me with my feet on the ground, so that I might follow as far as I could the words of the poet: ‘If you can dream and not make dreams your master …’ and above all: ‘If you can talk with crowds and keep your virtue…’
“Today we will celebrate our victory for a while, but from tomorrow morning we will roll up our sleeves once more. And we will begin the attempt to build together a strong Greece, a more prosperous homeland with greater justice for all. I thank you again for the great honour. Tomorrow a better day dawns for all of us.”