Highlights: exit polls give the conservative New Democracy a lead of between 4 and 7 points against the left-wing Syriza party. Observers expect no party will a priori have a sufficient majority to govern after this proportional election. By mid-afternoon, turnout in the legislative elections stood at more than 48%, a figure close to the last elections in 2019. Kyriakos Mitsotakis, the outgoing Prime Minister, says he wants to increase the average income by 25% during a possible future mandate. Alexis Tsipras evokes for his part the increase of the minimum wage to 880 euros and a boost to pensioners' pensions.

Polling stations for the parliamentary elections closed at 19 p.m. local time (16 p.m. GMT) on Sunday 21 May in Greece. In the middle of the afternoon, the turnout for the legislative elections was rising...

Greece: Prime Minister Mitsotakis' conservatives lead the general elections

The counting of votes from the May 21, 2023 elections in Greece, here in Athens. The New Democracy party is given the lead ahead of Syriza. AP - Thanassis Stavrakis

Text by: RFI Follow

2 min

Polling stations for the parliamentary elections closed at 19 p.m. local time (16 p.m. GMT) on Sunday 21 May in Greece. By mid-afternoon, turnout in the legislative elections stood at more than 48%, a figure close to the last elections in 2019. Exit polls give the conservative New Democracy a lead of between 4 and 7 points against the left-wing Syriza party. Observers expect however that no party will a priori have a sufficient majority to govern after this proportional election. A new vote would then be held at the beginning of the summer.

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With our correspondent in Athens, Joël Bronner

In Greece, it is above all a question of the various political parties continuing to repair a country that has been sorely tried by a decade of economic crisis and impoverished by the implementation of austerity policies. For the record, in the 2010s, pensioners' pensions were reduced, for example, by 20 to 40% on average.

Ahead of Sunday's vote, the main parties have therefore committed, first and foremost, to raising wages. Kyriakos Mitsotakis, the outgoing Prime Minister, says he wants to increase the average income by 25% during a possible future mandate. On the left, Alexis Tsipras evokes for his part the increase of the minimum wage to 880 euros and a boost to pensioners' pensions.

At a time when the Greek state welcomes the return of growth and that of foreign investors, voters of all stripes now hope to see their daily lives improve and the country continue to get its public services back on its feet. Starting with the exhausted health sector or the dilapidated transport sector, as a deadly train accident at the beginning of March brutally recalled.

Also listen: Georges Kapopoulos: in Greece, "no surprise, the conservative party will be the first"

Greece: Prime Minister Mitsotakis' conservatives lead the general elections

Greece: Prime Minister Mitsotakis' conservatives lead the general elections

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