Conservative Kyriakos Mitsotakis is likely to get an outright majority. For Syriza, the left-wing party, the election was another disaster.

Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis’ conservative New Democracy party is likely to get around 40.5 percent of the vote. Official forecasts show just that.

At around 8:20 p.m. Mitsotakis declared his party would win the election.

– The people have given us a safe majority. Major reforms will be adopted quickly, the prime minister said in a televised speech.

For Syriza, on the other hand, the election is bad news. They tend to get less than 18 percent of the vote.

Obviously after a third of the votes were counted. If his predictions turn out to be correct, Mitsotakis will have enough mandate to form a stable government for the next four years.

Now he is promising strong growth that will ensure higher wages, as well as reforms to Greece’s health system.

Two elections in five weeks

This is the second time in five weeks that Greeks have voted for a new national assembly. Elections in May ended in a solid victory for New Democracy, led by Mitsotakis.

But that was not enough to secure a parliamentary majority. There was thus a new election, as stipulated by the country’s new election law. This time, the largest party gets a form of bonus that should increase the chances of forming a majority government.

After the last election, New Democracy was five mandates short of securing a majority, despite the fact that it received 41 percent of the vote. Syriza then got 20 percent of the vote. Now they seem to be gaining about 18 percent.

Right after the migrant shipwreck

The election took place a week after several hundred people lost their lives when a boat carrying migrants and refugees sank off the west coast of Greece. The shipwreck has sparked debate about the authorities’ handling of migrants and the government’s strict line.

The coast guard was heavily criticized for not trying to evacuate the ship. Found several hours before it capsized and sank.

Mitsotakis, who pursues a hardline migration policy, blamed people-smugglers and praised the coast guard for saving people. Tsipras questioned why the coast guard had not intervened sooner.

But the debacle does not appear to have swayed the election. Voters care deeply about the Greek economy.

Four years of stability

In the last decade, Greece has struggled. They have experienced financial crises, lower wages, and cuts in the public sector.

Nonetheless, voters appeared to be lending new credence to the incumbent government. This is after four years of growth and lower unemployment.

– What we see here is a vote based on the economy, says analyst Yannis Tsirbas at the University of Athens.

He believes that Mitsotakis has succeeded in reaching voters in the center, well helped by the far-right press happy to put prime ministers in a good light, as well as by silencing the far right in his government. own party.

– He has been building the image of a moderate politician and an effective politician for many years now, he said about Mitsotakis.

The prime minister belongs to one of the political dynasties in Greece with a father who became prime minister in the early 1990s.

Gloomy for Tsipras

For opposition leader Alexis Tsipras, elections are about political survival. He led the left-wing Syriza party and was prime minister during some of the most difficult years after the financial crisis.

During the election campaign, he promised to defend Greece’s health system and welfare state.

Mitsotakis’ strategy so far has been to pursue policies that attract investors to Greece. He is also trying to make the country appear as a responsible member of the eurozone. Which is different from the chaotic years of the Syriza government.