Greeks go to the polls on May 21 for parliamentary elections, which experts are unlikely to produce an outright winner in the first round.
There are about 9.8 million registered voters, including 440,000 young people between the ages of 17 and 21. The latter are eligible to vote for the first time.
Also, for the first time, Greeks living abroad will be able to vote, on May 20, without having to return to Greece to put the paper in the box.
The main parties and their projects
Currently, the conservative New Democracy party, the party of current Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitskotakis, controls 158 seats in the 300-seat parliament. This means that he has the majority.
During the election campaign, the party promised to work on the following:
- Continuing the tax cuts that he started with during his first term
- Achieving an annual growth rate of 3 percent
- Promote foreign direct investment
- Reduce unemployment to less than 8 percent
During his first term, Prime Minister Mitsotakis focused on the security issue in the country, strengthening the capabilities of the security forces and concluding massive arms deals for the forces. Navy AndweatherEspecially with France.
Migration was also a major topic During Mitsotakis’ first term, the conservative politician frequently described the immigration crisis as a threat. In past years, Greece has erected metal barriers on the border with Turkey to stem the flow of migrants.
Syriza
In addition to the New Democracy party, there is the party of former Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras, Syriza, whose roots go back to a radical left coalition that was founded in 2004 and later split in 2015.
The party lost the elections to the conservatives from the “New Democracy” in 2019, so it moved to the opposition. The party is currently seeking to return to power. Among the most prominent points of its electoral program are the following:
- Increasing salaries for workers and retirees alike
- Reducing corporate profits in the energy sector
- Reducing the number of working hours per week
- Protection of minorities
- Canceling the Greek Financial Stability Fund (an instrument to monitor the banking sector created during the economic and financial crisis).
Movement for change
In addition to the conservative “New Democracy” and “Syriza” parties, which represent a coalition of the progressive left and the radical left, a coalition stands out. Pasuk-Kinal (Movement for Change), which was launched in 2018 and belongs to the center-left.
The party is currently the third largest party in Greece and controls 22 seats in Parliament. Its leader, Nikos Androulakis, proposed several projects, the most prominent of which were the following:
- Transition to clean energy away from coal and natural gas
- Support the country’s health care system
- Boost public sector wages
- Improving the level of transparency and efficiency in state institutions
What do the polls say?
Opinion polls indicate that the conservative “New Democracy” party is about 7 points ahead of the “Syriza” party, while the PASOK-KINAL party appears in third place.
Eva Kayley, the vice-president of the European Parliament, around which the Qatargate scandal was raised, belonged to this party but was previously dismissed from her post in February.
Tsipras called on voters not to believe opinion polls, at the same time calling on the companies that manage these matters to show more transparency. His party also demanded the publication of preliminary data for the polls being conducted.
But strong rival Mitsotakis also faces partial but fierce domestic opposition, over the worst train accident in Greek history that killed 57 people. Experts believe that this incident may affect the popularity of Mitsotakis and his party.
However, despite the popular protests that followed the incident immediately, Euronews Greece reported that the public anger was directed not only against the current government, but against the entire Greek political system. The victims’ relatives filed a lawsuit against 17 people on May 16 (Tuesday), just days before the elections.
How does the Greek electoral system work?
- Greeks will vote to elect 300 members of the Hellenic Parliament under a system of proportional representation. To be precise, the people will elect 280 deputies proportionally, then the constitution will grant an additional 20 deputies to the party that gets the most votes.
- Parties that receive less than 3% of the vote cannot enter Parliament and participate in it for a new four-year term.
- The main party needs about 46% of the vote to secure an outright victory on May 21. And if no party achieves this result, it is likely that Greece will enter a period of political deadlock, until the re-election next July.
- The three major parties had previously declared, without ambiguity, that they did not wish to form a coalition and work with each other.
