Greek Conservatives Trounce Opponents in Elections, Buoyed by Economic Upturn
Wall Street JournalMay 22, 2023
Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis's center-right New Democracy party won 40.8% of the vote in Sunday's elections but fell short of the absolute majority needed to form a government on its own.
With nearly all the votes counted, Mitsotakis's party is 20 points ahead of Alexis Tsipras' center-left Syriza party, which received about 20% of the vote. The socialist Pasok party came in third with 11.5% of the vote.
New Democracy's resounding victory indicates that Greeks want Mitsotakis to continue on the path of economic recovery, reforms, and stability. After the country's severe debt crisis in the 2010s, economic growth has resumed, and exports and the investment climate have improved thanks to New Democracy's initiatives. Aided by EU funds and a business-friendly government that has restored investor confidence, Greece is on the right track.
Mitsotakis won because Syriza weakened the left by bowing to the demands of big money and the EU troika while rejecting to form a leftist alliance and providing a convincing alternative for the country. As Greece is a prime example of how pleasing investors and the EU financial apparatus through "reforms" do not translate into better living conditions for ordinary citizens, its opposition parties must wake up, collaborate, and offer a solution to fix the nation's economic, social, and environmental woes if they dream of getting anywhere close to winning office.