ND: Sweeping victories, landslides nationwide in regional, municipal elections

Main opposition conservative New Democracy has scored its greatest victory ever in regional and municipal elections, winning 11 of the country's 13 prefectures - including a landslide two-thirds of the popular vote for New Democracy-backed Yorgos Patoulis in the enormous Attica Prefecture, which with 3.7mn residents constitutes one-third of Greece's population - and a landslide victory with two-thirds of the vote for Kostas Bakoyannis in the Athens Mayoral race.

Though ruling SYRIZA never had strong organisation in local government, and there were very few party members in municipal and regional races (Dourou was the prime exception), the sweeping victory of ND-backed candidates  was widely viewed as yet another harbinger of a New Democracy landslide victory in the 7 July general election.

According to official Interior Ministry returns, candidates supported by New Democracy secured a clear lead in six of the seven prefectural run-offs today between the two top candidates in races in which no candidate garnered an absolute majority of the popular vote in the first round of voting on 26 May.

Patoulis landslide

In the Attica Prefecture, Patoulis (until now the Mayor of Marousi and the current president of the Athens Medical Asssociation) garnered 65.8 percent of the vote compared to incumbent Rena Dourou's 34.2 percent.

Dourou was the highest ranking politician blamed for the botched management of the deadly Mati wildfire of July, 2018, even though the Fire Service, Greek Police, and the General Secretariat of Civil Protection played a major role in the mismanagement of the disaster.

Dourou's victory in 2014 presaged SYRIZA's rise to power in January, 2015.

Venizelos tips scale with support for ND...