Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis’ center-right New Democracy party, which dominated that ballot with 40%, is widely expected to win outright in the next round, where different rules make it easier for the top finisher to form a government.
The hard leftists of Syriza, meanwhile, who swept to power back in 2015-2019 by riding a wave of popular anger about Greece’s debt crises and austerity measures, placed a distant second, with just 20% of the vote. Their more moderate, establishment social democrat rivals in PASOK, meanwhile, pulled in with 11%, their best result in a decade.
Mitsotakis’ critics will remind voters that he presided over Greece’s worst-ever train crash, illegally wiretapped his political opponents, and has recently been put on the defensive over the Greek government’s reported pushback of would-be asylum-seekers. But the PM is still well-positioned to carry the day by pitching voters, again, on his record of strong economic recovery – the S&P recently upgraded the country’s outlook from stable to positive – falling inflation, and a tough border policy.
