Athens (EFE). – Greece is headed from today towards a new appointment with the polls because the clear winner of the legislative elections on Sunday, the conservative New Democracy (ND), would aspire to obtain the absolute majority that it has not achieved due to procedural reasons.
The vote gave strong support to the mandate of the prime minister, Kyriakos Mitsotakis, and his ND, whose clear victory left his rivals far behind, but it was not enough to guarantee that he can govern without agreeing with other parties.
With 99.67% of the votes counted, ND gathers 40.8% of the ballots and is more than 20 points ahead of the leftist Syriza of former Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras, who only achieved 20%, according to data published today by the Ministry of the Interior.
By virtue of the proportional system to distribute the 300 seats in Parliament that is applied to yesterday’s result, none of the parties has achieved an absolute majority to govern alone.
But if the elections are repeated, a prize of up to 50 seats will be introduced for the party with the most votes, so that ND would not need to seek an alliance with other formations.
The president of Greece, Katerina Sakelaropúlu, today ordered the prime minister, the conservative Kyriakos Mitsotakis, to form a new government.
Everything indicates, however, that Mitsotakis will reject the assignment and there could be a repeat election on June 25.
New elections in a month
The head of government arrived at the country’s presidential headquarters at noon and received the mandate to negotiate a new executive with other parties.
Mitsotakis informed the president that he “intends” to return the order this afternoon, with which he would refuse to try to agree with any of his rivals.
If so, Greece would repeat elections, “probably on June 25”, according to the conservative leader, since the three left-wing parties in opposition do not gather together the necessary seats to win an absolute majority.
According to the law, if the winner of the elections rejects the task of forming a government, the president of the country should hand over the mandate to the leader of the second most voted party, in this case the opposition and leftist Syriza of former Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras.Tsisipras.
If he does not achieve his goal either, the task would be transferred to Nikos Andrulakis, head of the Socialists, as the third political force that emerged yesterday from the polls.
The Hellenic Constitution establishes that the first three parties have a maximum period of up to 3 days to form a government.
If they fail, the president can make one last attempt by summoning the leaders of all political parties or immediately order the dissolution of Parliament, call new elections and name an interim Executive that will lead the country to the new elections.
