National liberalism

Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis chose to visit the Finance Ministry on Wednesday for his first official visit since his re-election. He was met at the ministry by new Finance Minister Kostis Hatzidakis. The prime minister was accompanied by Minister of State Akis Skertsos and his economic advisor Alex Patelis.

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

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.

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.

The surveillance of Koukakis' phone turned out to be the tip of an iceberg whose scale only began emerging last summer, as the government of Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis was swamped with claims that it had spied on the phones of journalists, opposition politicians, oligarchs and top state officials.

"We lack a culture of collaboration." Unfortunately, this phrase is repeated in Greece as an unquestionable truth. And since we ostensibly lack this culture, we find ourselves resorting to holding elections repeatedly until we can establish a majority government.

Greece's leftists will receive an official mandate on Tuesday to form a coalition government after an inconclusive national election, but are expected to seek a second vote instead.

The conservative New Democracy party romped to victory with 40.8% of the vote in Sunday's poll which sent the leftist SYRIZA into a tailspin after taking 20.1% of the vote.

Greek stocks and government bonds rallied sharply on Monday, cheering the ruling New Democracy party's election showing.

Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis' party fell just short of a majority in Sunday's vote, making a second election likely.

Greek Prime Minister and New Democracy leader Kyriakos Mitsotakis greets supporters after announcing the first results of the Greek elections at the party's HQ in Athens, 21 May 2023. Photo: EPA-EFE/GEORGE VITSARAS

BELGRADE - Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic congratulated Greek PM Kyriakos Mitsotakis, the leader of Greece's ruling New Democracy Party, on the results achieved in Sunday's elections.