The World Briefly

May 24, 2023

Gambling Big

Greece

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Greece’s ruling conservatives and its main leftist opposition party rejected mandates to form a coalition government following the results of Sunday’s parliamentary elections – which could lead the European Union country to hold another vote next month, Reuters reported Tuesday.

The results of the elections showed the New Democracy party of Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis won nearly 41 percent of the vote. Meanwhile, the left-wing Syriza party secured just over 20 percent, a result that party leader Alexis Tsipras called a “painful” electoral defeat.

But despite being the largest party, Mitsotakis said he was against forming a coalition and pushed for a second vote in order to secure a comfortable majority for New Democracy.

On Tuesday, Tsipras also rejected a mandate to create a ruling alliance, saying many voters had turned away from Syriza’s radical, anti-establishment style that had swept it to power during the turbulent years of the Greek debt crisis.

Opposition parties also do not have enough seats to form a government without the conservative New Democracy party.

The Socialist PASOK party will still formally be given the mandate to form a coalition before the country’s president appoints a caretaker government to lead Greece to a second vote.

The new elections are tentatively scheduled for June 25 and will include a system of bonus votes: The winner of the second election will receive 20 additional seats in parliament if they get 25 percent of the vote.

The number goes to 50 seats if the winning party secures about 40 percent.

Observers noted that if Mitsotakis secured 40 percent of the vote again or even a little less, he would still gain a majority.

This story originally appeared in the May 24, 2023 newsletter, Terrorist Vs. Terrorist.