Movement for Change

Even as SYRIZA confronted a New Democracy landslide in 2 June local election run-offs, a poll on voter intention in the 7 July general election had the ruling party trailing ND by nine percentage points, nearly the identical spread between the two top parties as in the 26 May European Parliament election.

Center-left Movement for Change (KINAL), which is polling in third place ahead of national elections in July, was in a state of upheaval on Sunday after two candidates and a party cadre quit in protest at the withdrawal of socialist heavyweight Evangelos Venizelos. 

Main opposition New Democracy is 9 percentage points ahead of ruling SYRIZA, according to an opinion poll carried out by Pulse for broadcaster SKAI, published on Sunday.

Several simple conclusions emerged from last Sunday's elections. SYRIZA was roundly defeated and this defeat was not due exclusively to the name deal with North Macedonia, but also to its style of governance. It paid - with interest - for its lack of emotional intelligence and its tolerance for loathsome behavior like that of Alternate Health Minister Pavlos Polakis.

In a bombshell move, centre-left Movement for Change (mainly Pasok) leader Fofi Genninata has shown ex-Pasok leader Evangelos Venizelos the door after her decision today to give former Athens Mayor Yorgos Kaminis the top spot on the party's statewide ticket after months of rumours that Venizelos would be offered the slot.

Evangelos Venizelos, a former leader of the socialist PASOK party, and foreign minister, has quit the Movement for Change (KINAL), the socialist alliance that got third place in last week's European Parliament election.

The difference in the European Parliament election results concerning Greeks living abroad between conservative New Democracy and ruling SYRIZA was 18.61 percentage points in the former's favor, a final count has shown - double the difference in the domestic vote.

There are several obvious conclusions we can take away from Sunday's election results. First, that opposition New Democracy triumphed with the widest margin ever seen in European elections in Greece and that it is now aiming for a similar or even greater victory in the upcoming general election.

By George Gilson

After stubbornly refusing for months to reveal his intentions, Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras has said that he will support Frans Timmermans's candidacy for the European Commission Presidency.

By George Gilson

Stunned by the magnitude of his party's and his personal defeat, Prime Minister began the arduous and urgent task of reconsidering his strategy and calling on his party cadres to regroup in the face of an uphill general election battle just one month after crushing European Parliament and local elections defeats on 26 May.