More than 9.8 million Greeks are called to vote tomorrow to elect a new Parliament in a contest in which all forecasts point to a first place for the ruling right, although without the absolute majority required by the new electoral law to form a lone executive.
These elections, in which the 300 seats that make up the Council of the Hellenes, the unicameral Parliament of Greece, are at stake, come after years of citizen mobilizations against the worsening of the standard of living.
Traditionally, the Greek electoral system has favored the party with the most votes, with a method that practically gave it full freedom when it came to forming a government.
However, the Executive of the left-wing formation Syriza reformed the Law in 2018 to introduce a proportional distribution without rewards that will be tested this Sunday.
The deputies will be distributed proportionally among all those groups that exceed the 3% threshold.
With this new system, a party would need to reach 46% of the votes – something unprecedented in the last three decades – to govern alone.
The polls predict that the ruling New Democracy would have between 31% and 36% of the votes, while Syriza would obtain between 24% and 29%, reported the Europa Press news agency.
The Panhellenic Socialist Movement (Pasok), formerly the government party, is in third position with 10% of the preferences, so in a hypothetical coalition it would have the key to access the Executive.
Thus, he could decide whether to allow the current prime minister, Kyriakos Mitsotakis, a second term or opt for the “progressive coalition” that Syriza calls for, with whom he shares part of the program, but also potential voters.
“Citizens will have to decide if they want to move forward or return to a past that we want to forget,” the current prime minister said in a recent debate between leaders, where he once again claimed to be a bulwark of political stability.
“Stability or chaos,” he proclaimed this week in an act. In this sense, he made an effort to warn of the instability that entering a period of political uncertainty would entail.
Former Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras (2015-2019) and leader of Syriza, for his part, presented an ambitious program, with “immediate” relief measures, such as reducing VAT on food, as well as putting an end to evictions from homes .
Once the polls have closed and the seats have been distributed, the president of Greece, Katerina Sakellaropoulou, will commission the party with the most votes to test the rest of the formations to try to forge some kind of alliance.
In the event that it does not succeed, the request will go to the second party with the most votes and, if it fails again, to the third.
After three failed attempts, the Greeks will be called back to the polls, after the appointment of an interim administration headed by a representative of the judicial system.
In this second appointment, foreseeably on July 2, the system promoted by Mitsotakis would be applied, in which the premium for the party with the most votes is recovered: 20 more seats in the event of obtaining 25% of the votes, with room to expand up to 50.
Analysts assume that this second appointment at the polls will be necessary, although the parties will have to measure their movements to avoid being singled out as responsible for the lack of consensus.
El Pasok does not close doors with either New Democracy or Syriza, conditioning any future support on the adoption of part of its political program, in a timid attempt to recover its lost influence on the Greek political scene.
Another concern is the level of participation that may occur, after abstention exceeded 40% in the last elections.
Syriza trusts that these data will rise to achieve a greater mobilization of the left and turn the polls around.
The economy and unemployment, which is around 12%, are the main concerns of ordinary Greeks, while illegal immigration continues to be a recurring topic of debate, -although the 18,000 arrivals registered in 2022 are far from the more than 850,000 of 2015.
In the international arena, the spotlight is on Ukraine, due to those derived from the conflict, but also on Turkey, with whom there are recurring tensions and reproaches mainly on account of sovereignty issues.
Source: Ambito
