2023 (MAY) GREEK LEGISLATIVE ELECTION

Parliamentary elections were held in Greece on 21 May 2023. All 300 seats in the Greek Parliament were contested.  Prime Minister Mitsotakis's centre-right New Democracy  comprehensively routed its main rivals losing some seats despite increasing it's percentage share of the vote.

This election was held under a new system with a 3% electoral thereshold (Greece used a straightforward PR system for this election unlike previous elections). It also ditched the 50-seat majority bonus usually awarded to the largest party which had been in place since 1990. 

New Democracy's campaign focused on tax cuts for people and businesses, further privatisations, controling the borders, illegal immigration and foreign workers (including those from EU countries), foreign and domestic investment promises and lower unemployment promises, as well the economy in general and and the liberalisation and opening of Greece worldwide to foreign trade and foreign investement, no matter what the EU says (isn't this mostly what Truss wanted to do?).  Their main rival - the radical Left Syrizia of Alexis Tsisparis, campaigned mainly over the housing shortage, wire-tapping scandals and the problems being encountered by the middle class (the left wing?  Campaigning for the middle class and middle class policies? Hmmmm, now where have I seen that recently). It's vote share fell by a third.    The third largest party - the socialist-green PASOK (once upon a time the largest party until it bankrupted the country) campaigned on green issues and healthcare.  It increased it's seats and vote-share.   The other two parties winning seats were the Greek Communist Party KKE and the far-Right EL.    There were 30 other parties and some independents also stood but they won no seats after failing to meet the 3% cut-off threshold.

Prime Minister Mitsotakis (ND) has declared victory, adding he will move for a yet another snap election, to be held in late June in order to seek an absolute and clear majority - “Greece needs a government that believes in reforms, and this cannot happen with a fragile government. New Democracy has the approval of the citizens to govern independently and strongly.”  The new election will be held under a slightly altered system whereby the party coming first will receive 20 extra seats and then a new sliding scale giving all parties receiving between 25% and 40% of the vote one seat for every half percentage point in this range (up to 30 seats), before the proper proportional distribution across all parties for the remaining 250 seats begins.   This would in effect give the largest party somewhere between 20 & 50 extra seats on top of their share from the remaining 250 - and indeed, on this elections figures, ND would in fact take all 50 top-up seats as well as 40.8% of the remaining 250 or 102 seats which would have given them152/300.

Voting in Greece is theoretically mandatory and all adults are automatically registered on the Electoral Register, however the penalties for not voting are never enforced.  Really compulsory registration is actually used - along with compulsory national dentity cards, as a method of monitoring where everyone is.