It's a big setback for Alexis Tsipras. Kyriakos Mitsotakis' Greek conservatives crushed the incumbent Prime Minister Syriza's left-wing formation on Sunday (July 7th) during the first legislative elections since the country escaped bankruptcy, according to exit polls.
According to a compilation of polls conducted for the main Greek television channels, Kyriakos Mitsotakis, 51, will be the future prime minister since his training won 40% of the vote against 28.5% for Alexis Tsipras.
The flip-flop of Tsipras
Emerging in a chaotic Greece, overwhelmed by the debt crisis and austerity imposed by its creditors, the EU and IMF, young radical leftist leader Alexis Tsipras had created hope, in January 2015, in a people stunned by bankruptcies and social plans.
But he then flip-flopped, forced to accept a bailout with tough measures to prevent the exit of the euro area, which the voters did not forgive him.
Stunned by a scathing failure in the European and local elections in late May and early June, Alexis Tsipras, whose term ended theoretically in October, attempted a risky gamble by calling himself these early elections early in the year. summer, hoping to reverse the wave of discontent. But Tsipras, accustomed to put his majority back into play, would obviously have lost his bet this time.
"A recipe that leads to wear"
"We applied an unpopular and pro-banking finance policy, a recipe that leads to usury," Nikos Xydakis, former Syriza deputy and former minister of culture, told AFP.
He admitted that his party had made "too many promises": "We cultivated these promises and the voters also cultivated them on their side and instead of a confrontation, Syriza collided".
Some 10 million voters were called to vote. The first official results were expected around 9:00 pm (18:00 GMT).
Three years after taking the reins of the conservative party, Kyriakos Mitsotakis, perceived as a reformer, close to the business community, promised to "revive the economy" and "leave the crisis behind us".
With AFP