New elections are expected to take place in Greece at the end of June. The conservative Nea Dimokratia (ND) party under Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis clearly won the election on Sunday with 40.8 percent, but missed the absolute majority in the 300-strong parliament by 5 seats. The head of government does not want to form a coalition, but wants to govern alone for another four years. Nevertheless, the planned constitutional steps must first be completed, party circles said on Monday.
Mitsotakis formally received a three-day exploratory mandate to form a government from President Ekaterini Sakellaropoulou on Monday afternoon, state television reported. “There is no possibility of a coalition. I will return the mandate today,” he said at the meeting. Instead, he will contact the leaders of the second and third largest parties and suggest that they also give up their exploratory mandates so that new elections can take place as soon as possible.
New elections could take place on June 25th
According to information from the German Press Agency, both Alexis Tsipras from the left-wing party Syriza (20 percent) and Nikos Androulakis from the social democratic Pasok (11.5 percent) are willing to do so. Then the new elections could take place on June 25, experts on state television estimated.
For the Left Party, but also for the New Dimokratia, a grand coalition is out of the question for ideological reasons. That would be a kind of “unthinkable and unholy alliance,” say analysts. The Social Democrats, on the other hand, are on the up again after more than ten years (2019 – only 8.10 percent – now 11.5 percent) and do not want to appear as a kind of support for the conservatives.
But even if another party were willing to form a coalition with New Democracy, Mitsotakis would not go along with it. Should he also win the new elections – which all opinion polls are predicting – he will be able to start a second four-year term on his own. The electoral law of these new elections provides that the first party gets a bonus of at least 20 seats.
