Government of Greece

Former Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis' conservatives appear set to win a repeat election in Greece on Sunday after an inconclusive vote on May 21, putting him back in office.

The winner of Sunday's Greek elections will likely be Kyriakos Mitsotakis - but just as important for the future of Greek democracy is who loses, as the country risks being left without a real opposition.

In combining elements of the centre and the right, New Democracy leader Kyriakos Mitsotakis has created the kind of appeal that his rivals currently cannot match.

The former director of Greece's biggest annual cultural event was cleared on Tuesday of financial mismanagement charges by an appeals court in Athens.

Giorgos Loukos, who served as head of the Athens & Epidaurus Festival from 2006 until he was ousted in 2015, had been accused of over-charging the Greek state some 2.7 million euros between 2013 and 2014.

New Democracy leader Kyriakos Mitsotakis reiterated on Wednesday his pledge to include more women in his cabinet if he is re-elected in the June 25 election. "I have pledged that we will have many more women in the next cabinet," the ND president said.

Even those who argued that there should be no taboos in pre-election debate - including national issues - should now be convinced that the ongoing confrontation must come to an end.

The image of a political system that remains divided even on fundamental matters conveys the wrong message, both domestically and internationally.

Let self-restraint prevail, even at this moment.

The issue of the Turkish consulate's intervention in the Rodopi constituency of Thrace continued to spark tension on Monday with acrimonious exchanges between New Democracy and SYRIZA.

A two-day international conference commemorating the centenary of the Lausanne Treaty, a historic peace agreement that defined the modern borders of Greece and Turkey, will be inaugurated by Greek President Katerina Sakellaropoulou on Monday. The conference, titled "100 Years since the Treaty of Lausanne: Looking Back, Looking Ahead," will commence at 10 a.m.

For New Democracy leader Kyriakos Mitsotakis, winning a bare majority of seats in the 300-member Parliament would be no victory at all.

In the May 21 national election, the left-wing main opposition SYRIZA party lost 11.5 points compared to the previous election, in July 2019, and got 20.07% of the vote, far behind ruling New Democracy's 40.79%.