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Voting in Athens: Greek President Kyriakos Mitsotakis

Photo: LOUIZA VRADI / REUTERS

In the parliamentary elections in Greece, Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis' party has won the parliamentary elections, according to initial partial results. However, the government majority failed to do so. The conservative party New Democracy (ND), which has been in power for four years, won a good 41 percent of the vote after a third of the polling stations were counted on Sunday evening, while Alexis Tsipras' left-wing Syriza party won 20 percent.

Second round of elections possible in July

If these results stabilize, Mitsotakis will either have to start difficult negotiations on a coalition or schedule a second round of elections. It would probably take place in July. If it comes down to coalition negotiations, the moderately left-wing Pasok-Kinal party of Nikos Androulakis could act as kingmaker. According to initial forecasts, it came to around ten percent of the votes.

However, Androulakis said in March that he would only join a government led by neither Mitsotakis nor Tsipras. Mitsotakis, for his part, had also said before the election that he did not want to form a coalition.

In view of the tricky situation, experts assumed in the run-up to the election that there would be another ballot. In such a case, the winner of the election would benefit from a bonus that could give him up to 50 additional seats and thus possibly a stable majority.

Mitsotakis touts economic stability

Initial reactions from ND party grandees also suggested a new election. Minister Takis Theodorikakos told private broadcaster Skai that the forecasts suggested that the Conservatives could get enough votes in a second round of voting "to continue the reforms as an independent government."

After casting his vote in Athens, Mitsotakis called on voters not to jeopardize the hard-won economic stability under his government. "Today we are voting for our future, for more and better jobs, for a more efficient health system, for a stronger country that plays an important role in Europe," said the 55-year-old.

His main rival and predecessor Tsipras, on the other hand, warned that the rosy figures of the conservatives belied the growing poverty in Greece and that wages could not keep up with rising prices. He spoke of a "day of hope" and called on voters to put "four difficult years" behind them and opt for a "fair government" in the name of a better future.

Ten million voters

Almost ten million eligible voters were called to the election, including 440,000 first-time voters. The main issues of the election campaign were the cost of living and jobs.

Mitsotakis' government had come under pressure after a devastating head-on collision between two trains in February, which killed 57 people. The government had justified the accident with human error, even though Greece's notoriously poor rail network suffers from years of underfunding.

Mitsotakis and his party initially lost many votes in the polls. But the closer the election came, the better Mitsotakis was back.

jpa/afp