Kyriakos Mitsotakis, the leader of Greece’s center-right New Democracy party, has comfortably won a second four-year term as prime minister.
Mitsotakis is set to return to the prime minister’s office in a stronger position with his party’s resounding victory in Sunday’s elections, which were dominated by financial stability and cost-of-living issues.
“We have high targets that will transform Greece,” a triumphant Mitsotakis said in his victory speech, promising that “major reforms” would soon be under way.
“I will not tolerate any arrogance,” he added.
With nearly 100% of the vote counted, New Democracy had garnered over 40% of the vote. Its main opposition, leftist party Syriza trailed far behind in the preliminary results with over 17%.
A total of eight parties, including centrist PASOK-KINAL and leftist KKE, crossed the 3% threshold to enter the Greek parliament. They included groups on the far-right; the biggest surprise in Sunday’s vote was the entry to parliament of the little known, strongly anti-migrant Spartans party, backed by disgraced former lawmaker Ilias Kasidiaris, who is currently serving a prison sentence of over 13 years for membership in a criminal organization.
He is a former leading member of Golden Dawn, a neo-Nazi party that gained popularity during Greece’s financial crisis.
Other fringe far-right entries to parliament included the nationalist party Greek Solution and the ultra-religious, anti-abortion Niki. The three together have secured for the far right a bloc of more than 30 seats...
Source : CNN