GOVERNING PARTY LEADS IN GREEK ELECTION
The governing party of Greece’s conservative prime minister, Kyriakos Mitsotakis, was way ahead of the opposition in a general election Sunday but falling short of the outright majority required to secure another term, setting the stage for another general election since Mitsotakis appeared to rule out any horse-trading to form a coalition government.
Mitsotakis described the preliminary outcome as a “political earthquake” that called for an “experienced hand to the helm” of Greece, and said any negotiations with fractious potential coalition partners would only lead to a dead end.
With 85 percent of the vote counted Sunday night and his party, New Democracy, leading the opposition Syriza by 20 percentage points, Mitsotakis greeted a crowd of cheering supporters outside his party’s office in Athens.
“We kept the country upright and we’ve laid the foundations for a better nation,” he said. “We will fight the next battle together so that at the next elections, what we already decided on, an autonomous New Democracy, will be realized.”
New Democracy captured 40.8 percent of the votes by Sunday night, the preliminary results showed, after calling on Greeks to opt for economic and political stability over “chaos” in a tense campaign. The centerleft Syriza party, led by Alexis Tsipras, landed in second place, with 20 percent of the votes. The socialist PASOK party took third place, securing 11.6 percent after campaigning vehemently against both main parties.
Today, when the final result is clear, the leading party will get a mandate to try to form a government. But it appeared most likely that the prime minister will not explore that option, leading to a new election, most likely in June or early July. That vote would be held under a different system, which grants bonus seats to the winning party, giving New Democracy a better chance of forming an independent government.