Mitsotakis gunning for outright victory in Greek second vote

Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis said on Monday he will not seek to form a coalition government following this weekend's election, paving the way for a second vote in June he hopes his conservative party will win outright.

New Democracy won 40.8% of the vote versus 20.1% for the leftist SYRIZA, in a stunning boost for Mitsotakis, who has had to deal with a wiretapping scandal, the COVID pandemic, a cost of living crisis and a deadly rail crash that enraged the public.

But it fell short of the number of seats needed to govern on its own, triggering a round of coalition talks among the three biggest parties.

While each party, including the Socialist PASOK, are due to receive the three-day mandate to try to form a coalition, none have enough seats to form a ruling alliance, paving the way for the appointment of a caretaker government to take the country to...