The 21 People Most Likely to Become Greece’s Next MEPs
As votes for each one of the individual MEP candidates are still being counted, those who are currently leading the races now seem to have a good chance of becoming Greece‘s next 21 MEPs.
Let’s take a closer look at these individuals.
NEW DEMOCRACY – ND
The center-right New Democracy party, winning approximately 33.2 percent of the popular vote, is set to elect seven members to the European Parliament.
Those who are currently leading the race are psychiatrist and disabled-rights activist Stylianos Kympouropoulos, ex-Speaker and former leader of the ND Party, Evangelos Meimarakis, ex-MPS Elisabeth Vosenberg and Anna-Michelle Asimakopoulou. Additional ex-MEPs who seem to be in the running include Maria Spyraki, Emmanuel Kefalogiannis and George Kyrtsos.
New Democracy’s MEPs will sit in the seats of the European People’s Party.
COALITION OF THE RADICAL LEFT – SYRIZA
Six candidates are currently set to win seats for the Coalition of the Radical Left (SYRIZA) party.
Those who are leading the race for Greece’s ruling party are ex-MEP and Vice President of the European Parliament Dimitrios Papadimoulis, ex-MEP Stylianos Kouloglou, and former Minister of Tourism Elena Kountoura, who moved to SYRIZA from the right-wing ANEL party. Also in the running are journalist Constantinos Arvanitis, the famous actor Alexis Georgoulis and prominent businessman Petros Kokkalis.
SYRIZA’s MEPs will sit in the seats of the European United Left–Nordic Green Left (GUE-NGL) party.
MOVEMENT FOR CHANGE – KINAL
The Social Democrat ”Movement For Change” (KINAL) party appears to be re-electing its two former MEPs, Nikolaos Androulakis and Eva Kaili, who will sit in the Socialists and Democrat party’s seats.
COMMUNIST PARTY OF GREECE – KKE
The Communist Party of Greece (KKE) will elect two members, Constantinos Papadakis and Eleftherios Nikolaou Alavanos.
The KKE used to be part of the European United Left–Nordic Green Left, but its MEPs now sit as Independents.
GOLDEN DAWN
The neo-Nazi group Golden Dawn, despite its significant losses, will still elect two MEPs, ex-MP Ioannis Lagos and Athanasios Constantinou.
Golden Dawn’s MPs sit as Independents, since none of the existing European parties, even those of the far-right, want them in their groups due to their openly Nazi-friendly ideology.
GREEK SOLUTION
The surprise of the May 2019 election, the ”Greek Solution” party, received approximately 4.1 percent of the vote, electing one MEP, its leader and ex-MP Kyriakos Velopoulos.
Velopoulos served as an MP with the extreme-right LAOS party between 2007 and 2009.
He is a controversial figure who presents popular television shows on regional Greek stations, and is often accused of spreading fake news. He once presented ”Authentic hand-written letters of Jesus Christ” on his TV show — which he then tried to sell to viewers. Widespread ridicule as a result of this stunt has cost him dearly in his political career.
Velopoulos is expected to sit in the newly-formed extreme-right European Alliance of Peoples and Nations party.
MERA25
The last party which has a chance of electing an MEP is MERA25, the political party founded by former Greek finance minister Yianis Varoufakis.
His party appears to have received 3.02 percent of the vote, slightly higher than the 3 percent threshold which Greece sets for representation to the EU.
If the final results offer MERA 25 more than 3 percent of the vote, Sophia Sakorafa, an ex-SYRIZA MEP, will be elected.
She will sit in the seats of the European United Left–Nordic Green Left (GUE-NGL) party.
These results are not final yet. The official results are expected to be announced in the coming days and further changes are possible.