Conservatives seize power from Tsipras in Greek election
Results deal second election blow to Tsipras’ radical left after EU vote.
ATHENS — Greece’s main center-right opposition party won the national election Sunday, unseating the radical-left Syriza party of Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras with pledges to boost growth and create jobs.
The conservative New Democracy, led by Kyriakos Mitsotakis, is set to win about 39.6 percent of the vote, according to official estimates from the interior ministry, with most of the ballots counted. Syriza will win about 31.6 percent of the vote. This would mean ND would have 158 seats in the 300-seat parliament — enough to form a single-party government.
The results deal a second electoral blow to Tsipras’ party after a drubbing in May’s European Parliament vote, which helped precipitate Sunday’s snap election.
The results also mark the first time in 10 years that a political party has won enough support to govern alone, following years in which Greek voters punished establishment parties like New Democracy and the socialist Pasok for their role in Greece’s financial crisis. It gives Mitsotakis, the son of a former conservative prime minister, a solid mandate to push forward with his platform of cutting taxes to drive investment, growth and new jobs.
“Tomorrow, the sky will be a bit bluer, the sun a little brighter … a new day is beginning for our country,” said Mitsotakis, who will be sworn in as premier on Monday.
Sunday’s election was the first since Greece left the oversight of its creditors in August last year, after nearly a decade of turmoil that reduced the country’s GDP by a quarter, drove unemployment to a record high and threatened Greece’s place in the eurozone. Tsipras, who oversaw the implementation of a third and final loan package during his time in office, had campaigned on the argument that a vote for ND would be a vote for the parties that brought financial ruin to Greece, threatening the gains made by his government.
“We took difficult decisions and shouldered a heavy political cost which we pay today,” Tsipras said in a televised speech after congratulating Mitsotakis on the results. “The country we hand over to the new government has no relationship to the country we received” in 2015 when the country was on the brink of bankruptcy and had an unemployment rate of 28 percent, Tsipras said.
He cited a buffer of cash and historically low borrowing rates as some of his government’s achievements.
Mitsotakis on Sunday promised that his party would be “rolling up its sleeves” and that parliament won’t close for summer “because the future cannot wait.”
“The sovereign Greek people have spoken. Society wants us to go forward united, together. It wants above all growth, jobs and security for Greece to become strong again, as it deserves.”
Not the end of Tsipras
Syriza’s loss Sunday was an improvement on the EU vote in which the party won about 23.8 percent compared to ND’s 33.1 percent.
And according to some analysts, this isn’t the end of Tsipras.
“This isn’t an experiment that failed,” said George Tzogopoulos, a lecturer at the Democritus University of Thrace. “Tsipras and Syriza were in power for 4.5 years, more than any other government during the bailout period.”
Being in opposition will give Tsipras time to “modernize his party, select new members, explore how his party will better represent the center-left political spectrum,” according to Tzogopoulos.
Tsipras, who is 44, “will have a future in politics,” he added.
The election was also a defeat for the neo-Nazi Golden Dawn party. Previously the third largest force in parliament, the preliminary results show the party may not make it above the 3 percent threshold to enter parliament — although just barely, at 2.97 percent of the vote.
The number of parties in parliament will affect the number of seats and how strong a majority ND wins. If Golden Dawn does make it into parliament, for example, New Democracy would win fewer seats.
The center-left Movement for Change received about 8.3 percent of the vote, or 23 seats, taking over Golden Dawn’s prior position in third place.
The Communist Party of Greece received 5.3 percent, or 14 seats, while former Finance Minister Yanis Varoufakis’ party is set to join parliament with 3.4 percent, or 9 seats. A new party, the right-wing Hellenic Solution, is also set to squeak past the 3 percent mark, with 3.7 percent, to win 10 seats.
Pierre Moscovici, the European commissioner for economic and financial affairs, in a tweet thanked Tsipras for his work as prime minister, saying he “has done a lot for his country and for Europe.” Moscovici also wished Mitsotakis the best of luck in “pursuing the job of getting the Greek economy back on its feet.”
Mitsotakis, a member of one of New Democracy’s two most influential families, will need to move fast to capture the positive momentum to bring change to a country where the unemployment rate continues to be the highest within the eurozone at 18 percent, and where growth is sputtering.
“There is certainly an opportunity for the new government,” said Tzogopoulos. “Markets had already welcomed a ND victory. Now it’s the turn of Mitsotakis to decide whether his party can make a difference and show to investors bureaucracy and other political obstacles can be removed. He has a strong mandate and can unlock important investments.”
“In Greece,” he added, “it’s all about political will.”
Authors:
https://www.politico.eu/article/center-right-to-seize-power-from-exit-polltsipras/