Mitsotakis sets sights on outright majority in Greece

Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis announced yesterday he is seeking a new vote, a day after his party’s success in national elections.

It comes after the polls on Sunday failed to produce a single-party government.

The New Democracy party won, with a 20-point lead over its nearest rival – its best result since 2007.

But it fell five seats short of the threshold needed to form a government on its own, leaving Mr Mitsotakis with the choice of seeking a coalition or calling a new vote.

Yesterday, he told President Katerina Sakellaropoulou, who handed him the mandate to form a government, that it was not possible to form a coalition under the current parliamentary line-up.

He told her Greece should hold new elections “as soon as possible”. A senior judge will soon be named as an interim prime minister and will call for new elections.

In the latest vote, New Democracy took a commanding lead of 40.8 per cent, soundly defeating the radical leftist Syriza, which governed from 2015 to 2019 and polled 20.1 per cent.

Yesterday, Ms Sakellaropoulou gave the top three parties – New Democracy, Syriza and the Socialist Pasok – three days to form a coalition government. But after Mr Mitsotakis rejected the move, she will now appoint a caretaker government to prepare for new elections.

Under a new electoral law that comes into play in the next ballot, the winner can obtain a bonus of up to 50 seats.

New Democracy is virtually assured of a victory.

On Sunday, Mr Mitsotakis announced his party had been given a clear mandate.

“The ballot results are decisive,” he told crowds outside party headquarters in Athens.

“They show that New Democracy has the approval of the people to rule, strong and autonomous.”

Mr Mitsotakis, a Harvard graduate and former McKinsey consultant, entered the elections as the favourite, with Greece enjoying fairly robust economic health.