On Sunday, Greeks voted for a fractured parliament

by Renee Maltezau

ATHENS (Reuters) – No party looks set to win an outright majority in Greece’s legislative elections on Sunday, paving the way for tough coalition talks and possibly as early as July.

The ruling conservative party, New Democracy, led by Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis, is credited with 32 to 37% of the vote ahead of former head of government Alexis Tsipras’s leftist Syriza party, in power from 2015 to 2019. , which would aggregate between 27% and 31%.

Pasok, the Socialist Party, is in third place with 8 to 11% of voting intentions.

Under a proportional voting system, it is estimated that approximately 46% is the threshold required to obtain an absolute majority in a unicameral parliament with 300 seats.

At the end of the elections, if the elections are confirmed, each of the three main parties will be given a three-day mandate in turn to try to form a government.

In theory, New Democracy and Pasok, who had already set aside their historic enmity to govern Greece during the debt crisis in early 2010, could have allied themselves, but Kyriakos Mitsotakis told Reuters this week In an interview with the ruling, he said that he was in favor of it. “strong one-party government”

“Experience in Greece has taught us that one-party governments are much more stable than coalition governments,” said the 55-year-old outgoing prime minister.

The once all-powerful Pasok saw his support decline after Greece signed its first international bailout in 2010. Since 2021 it has been attempting a comeback under a new leader, Nikos Androlakis, who is 44 years old.

The Social-Democrat Party has sent mixed signals regarding its participation in the coalition government.

Nikos Androlakis told supporters on 17 May, “If Mitsotakis or Tsipras think Pasok will be their crutch to power, they should look elsewhere.”

Pasok specifically accused Syriza of making shaky promises.

Syria, which introduced a proportional voting system when in power, says it wants to try to form a broad government coalition.

Polls show that Syriza will have to ally itself with more than two parties, including PASOK, to win a majority. Another potential partner would be Alexis Tsipras’ former finance minister Yanis Varoufakis, of the smaller party Mera25, but the two men have cooled since Varoufakis’ resignation in 2015, with Tsipras agreeing to a third bailout plan with international donors.

The Communist Party, which is credited with 5–6% of the vote, declined to participate in the coalition or support a minority government in parliament.

The far-right Greek Solution party, led by TV host Kyriakos Velopoulos, has rejected any alliance with New Democracy or Syriza.

(Reporting and writing with contributions by Renée Maltezou, Angeliki Koutantou and Deborah Kivrikosios; French version Editing by Gail Sheehan, Jean-Stéphane Brosse)