Kyriakos Mitsotakis defeated his rivals for the second time in a month and now has a majority
Greek conservative leader Kyriakos Mitsotakis defeated his centre-left rival in the second election in a month and said he had a “strong mandate” to move faster on the path of change.
His New Democracy (ND) party won 40.5% of the vote, nearly 23 points ahead of Syriza, with most of the votes counted.
He defeated Syriza in May but called new elections in an attempt to win a majority.
“Today the ND is the most powerful centre-right party in Europe,” he told cheering supporters in Athens.
Mr Mitsotakis is credited with successfully returning the Greek economy to stability and growth after a severe debt crisis and three international bailouts.
Although many Greeks are struggling with the cost of living crisis, voters chose to stick with the party promising lower taxes and improved public health.
The vote came 11 days after the migrant boat tragedy off Greece in which around 500 people are believed to have died.
Three days of mourning were organized, but the disaster had little effect on the campaign and Greeks voted to maintain economic stability.
“The people have given us a clear majority,” Mr Mitsotakis said as the extent of his victory became clear. “Major reforms will proceed quickly.”
His party failed to win a majority in the 300-seat parliament last month and his decision to call an election in a bid to form a stable one-party government was vindicated by Sunday’s result.
Under Greek rules for run-off elections, the largest party gets a bonus of between 20 and 50 seats. With more than 40% of the vote, New Democracy won all 50.
Mr Mitsotakis said he could not promise miracles, but that New Democracy had “high aims” to transform Greece with better public health and education.
The Syriza party of former prime minister Alexis Tsipras suffered a heavy defeat in the first election and lost even more ground in the second with less than 18% of the vote. He dispelled speculation that he would resign, saying it was the decision of his fellow party members.
One of the big stories of the election was the success of the newly formed far-right Spartan party, which won almost 4.7% of the vote, crossing the 3% threshold to enter parliament.
The Spartans only emerged as a political force this month when the Supreme Court banned another far-right party, the Hellenic Party, and jailed founder Ilias Kasidiaris rallied behind the Spartans.
Kasidiaris was the spokesman for the neo-Nazi party Golden Dawn, which was banned as a criminal organization and its leaders received long prison sentences.
Together with the nationalist Greek Solution and the ultraconservative Niki (Victory), the three hard-right parties won nearly 13% of the vote and 34 seats.
The victory secured by 55-year-old Kyriakos Mitsotakis over Alexis Tsipras’ Syriza is a rarity in Greek politics, as few parties increase their share after a first term in power.
He also managed to attract more young voters than his rival.
Alexis Tsipras said his future as leader rests in the hands of party members
His party was helped by the fragmentation of the left vote; with the socialist PASOK set at more than 11% and the communist KKE at around 7%.
Voter turnout fell eight points from the first vote to below 53%.
The Conservative leader has built a reputation as a Teflon-coated leader, fending off a string of damaging crises in the past year, including a rail disaster and a wiretapping scandal that brought down the intelligence chief and his own nephew, who served as the prime minister’s chief of staff.
Greece was under a caretaker government when the migrant boat sank off the southwest coast in the early hours of June 14.
Since the migrant crisis, the views of most Greek voters have shifted in favor of tougher, more conservative policies, said Panos Koliastasis, assistant professor of politics at the University of the Peloponnese.
“The reason is rooted in the migration crisis of 2020 on the Evros River, when Turkey tried to push thousands of migrants onto Greek territory and the Mitsotakis government acted quickly. So the majority of society perceives the problem of migration as an external threat to national sovereignty.”