The right-wing party of the incumbent prime minister came out on top in Sunday’s elections in Greece, according to exit polls, but Kyriakos Mitsotakis could find it difficult to form a stable government for lack of an absolute majority. New Democracy, in power for four years, would win between 36 and 40% of the vote ahead of the left-wing Syriza party of former head of government Alexis Tsipras, which would win between 25 and 29% of the vote, according to these polls published in the closure of polling stations by television channels.
Behind them, the socialist party Pasok-Kinal would win between 9.5 and 12.5% of the vote. First partial results should be published in the next two hours but if ND’s score is confirmed, it would not allow him to govern alone. However, Kyriakos Mitsotakis, who wants to be reappointed for four years, has ruled out forming a coalition in a country whose political culture is not based on compromise.
The Greek economy is picking up…
For his part, Alexis Tsipras made appeals to the leader of the Pasok-Kinal socialist party, Nikos Androulakis, for an alliance, but the latter made demands. If it is impossible to form a government in the next two weeks, which many analysts predict, a new election will have to be called and should be held at the end of June or the beginning of July. The winner of this second ballot would then benefit from a bonus of up to 50 seats likely to give him a stable majority.
During his election campaign, the conservative leader, a Harvard graduate and son of a former prime minister, constantly brandished his economic record. Sunday after voting in Athens, he assured that he wanted to make Greece “a stronger country with an important role in Europe”. “We are voting for our future, for more jobs and better jobs, for a more efficient health system,” he also said, accompanied by two of his three adult children.
Falling unemployment, growth of almost 6% last year, return of investments and surge in tourism, the economy has picked up again after years of acute crisis and European rescue plans. His opponent, who in 2015 embodied the hopes of the radical left in Europe, had wanted to see in these elections “a day of hope” to “turn the page on four difficult years” with a government “arrogant and not interested not to the most numerous”.
…But the country remains heavily indebted
The decline in purchasing power and the difficulties of making ends meet remain the main concerns of a population that has made painful sacrifices over the past ten years. Many Greeks have to make do with low wages and have lost faith in drastically reduced public services after drastic weight loss treatments. The country is still suffering from a public debt of more than 170% of its GDP. And inflation came close to 10% last year, further aggravating the difficulties of the population.
“We are going from bad to worse. We are just working to survive,” laments Giorgos Antonopoulos, 39, a store employee in Thessaloniki, the country’s second city. At the end of February, the train disaster that killed 57 people awoke the anger that has been eating away at Greece since the crisis and triggered demonstrations against the government accused of negligence. The critics of Kyriakos Mitsotakis accuse him of an authoritarian drift since he came to power. His tenure has been riddled with scandals, from illegal tapping to the refoulement of migrants to police violence.
In March, the European Parliament denounced “serious threats to the rule of law and fundamental rights” in Greece, according to Dutch MEP Sophie in’t Veld. Greece, bottom of the EU in terms of freedom of the press in the annual ranking of Reporters Without Borders, is also regularly accused of turning back migrants to Turkey. Friday, the American daily New York Times published a video attesting to such illegal practices which Athens vehemently denies.