Out of bailout spotlight, Greeks feeling recovery pains at election

Cab driver Christina Messari looks out the window of her taxi, with the ancient Acropolis in the background, in Athens on Wednesday. 49-year-old Messari, who is in business with her husband, struggled during the pandemic, and delivered parcels to make ends meet. [AP]

For the first time in more than a decade, Greeks will go to the polls Sunday to elect a leader no longer confined to steering the country's economy from a back seat.

Conservative Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis is seeking a second term after a draconian regime of spending controls ordered by international bailout lenders ended last summer.

The clean-cut Harvard graduate, as comfortable speaking in English as his native Greek, delivered unexpectedly high growth, a steep drop in unemployment and a country on the brink of returning to investment grade on the global bond market.

Debts to the International Monetary Fund were paid off early.

A landslide reelection for the 55-year-old Mitsotakis was once seen as a foregone conclusion. But his center-right New Democracy party could struggle to return to power as Greece's voters and political parties emerge...

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