Conservative New Democracy party wins landslide victory in Greek elections for second 4-year term

[Eugene]

Source: Associated Press

Conservative New Democracy party wins landslide victory in Greek elections for second 4-year term

By ELENA BECATOROS and DEREK GATOPOULOS
June 25, 2023

ATHENS, Greece (AP) — Greece’s conservative New Democracy party won a landslide victory in the country’s second election in five weeks Sunday, with partial official results showing it gaining a comfortable parliamentary majority to form a government for a second four-year term.

Official results from nearly 90% of voting centers nationwide showed Kyriakos Mitsotakis’ party with just over 40% of the vote, with his main rival, the left-wing Syriza party, suffering a crushing defeat with just under 18%, even worse than its 20% in the last elections in May.

Sunday’s vote came just over a week after a migrant ship capsized and sank off the western coast of Greece, leaving hundreds of people dead and missing and calling into question the actions of Greek authorities and the country’s strict migration policy. But the disaster, one of the worst in the Mediterranean in recent years, did not affect the election, with domestic economic issues at the forefront of voters’ minds.

Mitsotakis’ party was projected to win around 157 or 158 of Parliament’s 300 seats, thanks to a change in the electoral law that grants the winning party bonus seats. The previous election in May, conducted under a proportional representation system, left him five seats short of a majority despite winning 41% of the vote.

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Read more: https://apnews.com/article/greece-elections-prime-minister-parliament-e87e05317a208f66d877244eba5b947c

[Lovie777]

1. Every time I see the word conservative....................

first thought - negative.

But the word Democracy, first thought - positive.

Conservative "New" Democracy Party, ummmmmmmmmmmmm?????????????????????????????????????????????????

[peppertree]

2. The problem is that they rigged the results

Changing the rules to give themselves an absolute majority they would've otherwise not have.

Beyond that, they seem to have done a reasonably competent job. The economy has been growing again - though GDP remains an astonishing 20% below its 2007 high.

For comparison, the U.S. recovered its 1929 GDP levels by 1939, and Argentina - with whom Greece is often compared - recovered its 1980 GDP levels by 1992.

At the rate Greece is going, it'll take them 8 more years.