Diego Saez Papachristou |
Athens (EFE) More years.
His father, former Prime Minister Konstantinos Mitsotakis (1918-2017) was the nephew of Eleutherios Venizelos (1864-1936), one of the most influential heads of government in the history of the Hellenic country.
Kyriakos Mitsotakis, married and father of three children, is also the brother of Dora Bakoyanis, former Greek Foreign Minister and former mayor of Athens.
At 55, Kyriakos has already surpassed his father by staying in power for an entire legislature, and he aspires to do so this Sunday, thanks to the reintroduced bonus of up to 50 seats for the winner, with a majority of at least 151 of the 300 parliamentarians.
After graduating in Social Sciences and European Integration from the prestigious universities of Harvard and Stanford (USA), Mitsotakis worked as an analyst and financial manager in London and Athens.
His leap into politics came in 2004, when he was elected deputy for the conservative New Democracy (ND), being between 2012 and 2015 Minister of Administrative Reform, and since 2016 president of ND.
In July 2019, he managed to defeat the then prime minister, the leftist Alexis Tsipras, after adding 40% of the votes, which allowed him to govern with an absolute majority until last May.
In the elections of May 21, he returned to achieve 40%, but the electoral system then applied – without the bonus for the winner – meant that he did not obtain enough seats to govern.
After the failure of their rivals further to the left to form a government, early elections were called.
Better relations with the European Commission
Mitsotakis’s liberal policies made the Greek economy grow between 2019 and 2023 above the European average, attracting large foreign investments.
Last August, Greece abandoned the surveillance mechanisms imposed by its creditors since 2010, considered an accolade for the prime minister.
In addition, it has improved relations with the European Commission, where it has the support of the also conservative Ursula Von der Leyen.
Mitsotakis combines his liberalism with strong-arm policies on migration, although under his tenure Greece was accused of violating human rights in the Aegean Sea for practicing “hot returns” of immigrants and refugees.
The conservative denies these accusations, alleging that his government does not violate human rights and that it applies a “strict but fair” policy on migration.
The migration tragedy in the Ionian Sea last week, with probably hundreds of deaths, does not seem to affect the elections either.
His main rival: Alexis Tsipras
His main rival at the polls, although without any possibility of coming to power, continues to be Alexis Tsipras, who at the head of Syriza suffered a severe blow in the May elections, with barely 20%, half that of Mitsotakis.
Graduated in civil engineering, he has been a member of the youth of the Communist Party of Greece (KKE) since the 1980s, although he won his first parliamentary seat in 2004 as a member of Synaspismos, a left-wing predecessor coalition of Syriza.
The political career of Tsipras, 48 years old and father of two children, experienced a strong rise during the worst years of the Greek crisis, which led him to win the 2015 elections.
Five months after being sworn in as prime minister, he called a referendum for Greece to choose “in a sovereign manner” whether or not to accept a proposal from the European institutions and the IMF that contemplated more austerity.
Although he himself advocated the “no”, which was imposed with 61%, he finally agreed to a new rescue program, which included another cycle of cuts.
Despite stabilizing finances and pulling Greece out of austerity programs, Tsipras ended up losing the 2019 election and became the leader of the opposition again, a position he hopes to maintain after the next election.