New Democracy Claims Victory in First Round of Greek Elections

Greek Prime Minister and leader of New Democracy, Kyriakos Mitsotakis (R), enters his party's offices , 21 May 2023. Photo EPA-EFE/GEORGE VITSARAS

After 77.27 per cent of the total votes were counted, Kyriakos Mitsotakis's New Democracy won 40.83 per cent of the votes, almost twice as much as Alexis Tsipras's SYRIZA, which won 20.10 per cent.

"I thank the Greeks from the bottom of my heart. The ballot box is catalytic. The message is that voters want a self-sufficient New Democracy. Hope has defeated pessimism. I promise to work even harder to honour your trust. Citizens want a self-sufficient government with a four-year horizon," Mitsotakis said in a statement.

"Consistent with my commitments, I will follow all procedures. The mathematics of simple analogy leads to dead ends. We will speed up the process so that the country will soon have a firm hand on the wheel [to lead]. Today, a circle closes and a new one opens. I appeal in unison to those who hesitated to take the step. We continue and move steadily, boldly, and only forward," he added.

Greek media reported confusion and disappointment in SYRIZA's ranks. "The [ballot] result is negative for SYRIZA," said Tsipras, stressing that his party needs to make reforms ahead of the next elections.

Pre-election surveys showed the centre-right New Democracy on course to take roughly 30 per cent of the vote, ahead of the leftist SYRIZA on 24 per cent and PASOK on almost 10 per cent. However, SYRIZA won only 20.06 per cent of the vote.

The elections were held under a simple proportional system. The formation of a government requires winning close to 50 per cent, or 151 seats in parliament.

New Democracy has won 145 seats, followed by SYRIZA with 72, PASOK with 42 [11.68 per cent...