Greek Centre-Right Party Wins Landslide Election Victory

The New Democracy party defeated Syriza in a landslide victory on Sunday, in Greece's first parliamentary elections since the country's exit from its international financial bailout in August 2018.

New Democracy, a conservative opposition party, won 39.75 per cent of the votes against 31.53 per cent of the votes for the ruling Syriza, gaining 158 of the parliamentary seats, enough to form an absolute majority in the 300-seat parliament.

Greece's pre-term elections were held three months early, after Syriza lost this year's European and regional elections to New Democracy.

Sunday's turnout amounted to almost 58 per cent, a significant low.

Newly-elected Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis thanked the electorate for the "strong mandate". He said he will be everyone's president because Greeks are "too few to be divided".

"The citizens have made their choice. We fully respect the popular vote," said outgoing Prime Minister Tsipras on Sunday afternoon. Tsipras pledged that Syriza will become an opposition party that fights for the interests of the working class.

Four more parties gained seats, but Golden Dawn, the neo-Nazi party that once stood in third place, dropped below the threshold of three per cent, and will have no representation in the new parliament.

But the Greek Solution, another far-right populist party, led by Kyriakos Velopoulos, exceeded three per cent and took 10 seats.

Syriza first came to power in January 2015, opposing the austerity measures imposed by the first two international bailouts.

Despite its initial anti-austerity agenda, Tsipras eventually agreed to another bailout, after a referendum and the re-election of his party. Further rounds of austerity measures followed, as the government...