On an evening that additionally saw advances for the extreme right, Kyriakos Mitsotakis, the president of Greece’s center-right New Democracy party, has easily won an additional 4-year term as prime minister.
Following his party’s stunning victory in Sunday’s elections, driven by concerns about economic security and cost of living, Mitsotakis is expected to go back to the prime minister’s cabinet in an improved position.
In his victory address, a jubilant Mitsotakis declared, “We have ambitious goals that will change Greece,” encouraging the audience that “major reforms” are currently underway.
He said, “I will not put up with any attitude.
More than 40 percent of the votes had gone to New Democracy after almost all of the votes had been counted.
In the early results, Syriza, the main socialist opponent, was considerably lower, with almost 17%.
8 parties overall, such as the Marxist KKE and the centrist PASOK-KINAL, exceeded the 3% barrier to be admitted to the Greek parliament. The entry into parliament of the hidden Spartans party—strongly opposed to immigration and supported by shamed former lawmaker Ilias Kasidiaris, who currently has a sentence of more than 13 years in jail for membership in a criminal organization—was the greatest upset in Sunday’s vote.