Internationalist Workers' Left

The center-right "New Democracy" is the big winner of the early parliamentary elections in Greece that were held yesterday. The party will form an independent government and rule for the next 4 years.

Center-left PASOK has every reason to celebrate Sunday's result as it has increased its share of the vote by 50 percent over two election cycles.

The sense of elation was not least felt by its leader Nikos Androulakis, who has strengthened his hand.

Party leaders have been hosting their traditional gatherings with political reporters ahead of Sunday's election.

New Democracy leader Kyriakos Mitsotakis gathered with journalists at a cafe on Ermou Street, in central Athens, where much of the conversation was said to have focused on the upcoming election results and developments in Russia.

Leader of New Democracy party Kyriakos Mitsotakis greets people at a rally in Thessaloniki, Greece, 21 June 2023. Photo: EPA-EFE/ACHILLEAS CHIRAS

Almost a month ago, Mitsotakis emerged as the big winner of May 21 elections, taking 40.83 per cent of the vote and leaving his main rival, Alexis Tsipras, and the left-wing party SYRIZA far behind on 20.07 per cent.

Following is the political backdrop to Greece's parliamentary election on Sunday. Opinion polls show former Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis' New Democracy party winning by a wide margin over the leftist Syriza party, which ruled in 2015-2019 at the peak of the Greek debt crisis.

May election

With the election race entering the final stretch, political party staff have turned their attention to the race for the so-called new undecided voters - which, according to the latest polls, amount to roughly 7%-8% of the total - and to those who may abstain altogether.

SYRIZA leader Alexis Tsipras claimed in his interview to the major TV outlets Sunday that conservative New Democracy wants to amplify its May 21 victory in the new election on June 25 to install an "unaccountable regime" with a weak, splintered opposition and says the upcomingpolls represent a stark choice between two vastly different government programs.

PASOK-Movement for Change (KINAL) leader Nikos Androulakis interprets the result of the May 21 election, which gave the conservatives a 20-percentage point lead over the main opposition, as a failure of SYRIZA and categorically dismisses any possibility of cooperation with New Democracy, even if the latter does not secure an outright majority.

Three weeks have passed since the election on May 21, in which the SYRIZA leftists suffered a crushing defeat. They believed they would emerge victorious but ended up with only half the share that New Democracy got. However, even to this day, it appears that they still haven't grasped why 600,000 citizens who had voted for them in 2019 turned their backs on them.

With 10 days to go before the election, the rallying of the respective bases of SYRIZA and PASOK and the undecided voters are the factors that will play a pivotal role regarding the percentages the two parties will get and the final percentage that front-runner New Democracy can achieve.