This Sunday, May 21, about 10 million Greeks are summoned to vote in the legislative elections of this 2023. Experts estimate that achieving a majority will be very difficult this time, since there is no candidate who is clearly the favorite, and a second round will be very likely. The economic crisis, political polarization and lack of confidence in politicians are the issues that make the Greeks doubt the most.
Greece is on the verge of going to the polls. About 10 million Greeks are summoned this May 21 to vote and renew Parliament and the Government.
Below are the most important points for the elections this Sunday.
For pundits and analysts, the re-election of Greece’s current prime minister, the conservative Kyriakos Mitsotakis, seemed like a no-brainer. And it is that New Democracy (ND), his political party, has obtained economic achievements and maintains a message of stability, economic growth and rejection of migration. However, his victory on Sunday is no longer so clear.
Mitsotakis achieved unexpectedly high economic development, lowered unemployment and has left the Aegean-washed country on the brink of once again being a trusted investment in the global bond market.
In the July 2019 elections, the current president managed to defeat Alexis Tsipras, from the opposition formation Syriza, after adding 40% of the ballots, a result that allowed him to govern with an absolute majority for the last four years. And, from that moment on, he implemented a policy that combined economic liberalism with a tough stance on migration. Two of the big headaches for the Greeks at the time.
A political style that has won him some victories, such as the early payment of debts to the IMF, but also criticism, such as accusations by various non-governmental organizations of violating the DD. H H. of migrants for the so-called “hot returns” of migrants in the Aegean Sea and also to neighboring Turkey.
But, the scandal that has most damaged his image was the espionage of politicians and journalists -uncovered in August-, a practice that he used after putting the EYP secret services under his orders when he won the elections. The same opponents of his in these elections, such as the Syriza party or Pasok-Kinal, accuse him of wiretapping against him and his “authoritarian drift.”
In second position, according to the polls, is Alexis Tsipras and his left-wing party Syriza. In contrast to Mitsotakis’ neoliberalism and his tax cuts, the left-wing candidate defends a redistributive model based on greater support for the middle and lower classes to improve their standard of living and purchasing power and boost domestic demand.
However, against him, many citizens are still very aware of the insecurity and polarization of the referendum and the financial “corralito” of 2015, which collapsed the country and had it just one step away from being left out of the eurozone.
In third position with quite a distance, is the Pasok-Kinal. The center-left party has sent mixed signals about whether it would join a coalition government led by one of the two main candidates. With New Democracy it would be improbable due to the wiretapping against it, but also with Syriza, since the party assures that “they make promises that they cannot keep.”
“If Mitsotakis or Tsipras think that Pasok-Kinal will be their card to come to power, they should look elsewhere,” Nikos Androulakis, the coalition leader, told supporters in an appearance on May 17.
“We don’t have a culture of consensus in our political system, it’s more of zero sum: if you lose, I win,” Thodoris Georgakopoulos, editorial director of the diaNEOsis think tank, told the AP agency.
However, the polls indicate that the elections on Sunday will not yield an absolute winner – who needs half plus one of the 300 seats – and that it will most likely be a second round in July. A scenario in which alliances would be necessary to be able to deal with the issues that most concern the Greeks.
Polls make it abundantly clear: the most important issues for Greeks are the high cost of living and rising food prices.
It may seem paradoxical, but after the recent economic recovery and settlement of some of its debts with international organizations, the Greeks are concerned. The reason: prices have risen due to the relative economic recovery, but their salaries have not. And many do not manage to make ends meet. Somewhat closely tied to inflation, which stood at 3% yoy last month, food prices rose more than 11%.
“Everything is more expensive, and since salaries have not risen, it becomes difficult even the most basic things, like paying rent and buying food,” Thanasis, an Athenian and Syriza supporter, told media outlet ‘El Periódico’.
And it is that, between 2010 and 2018, several European governments and the IMF injected 280,000 million euros into the Greek economy to avoid the bankruptcy of the Hellenic nation. But, in return, they demanded tough austerity measures, such as spending cuts and public investment and tax reforms.
A serious recession that has been accumulating for years, which reached 400,000 million euros last December, and which affected the income of Hellenic families, which -according to experts- will need another decade to recover economically. Against this background, both Syriza and New Democracy have promised to raise wages and eliminate taxes on a basket of basic products.
“The last four years have been like looking at a heart monitor: It goes up and then it goes down… when business picks up, prices go up, so you stay in the same place,” Christina Messari, an Athenian taxi driver, complained to the agency. PA.
Niki Klaoudatou, a single mother, says she worries more about money now than she did during the worst years of the country’s economic crisis. Her salary of 850 euros does not allow her to face the mortgage, the expenses of her two young children and food.
“I had to tell my twelve-year-old son that I couldn’t take him by car with his friends because we don’t have the money, which we need for food. I felt very bad. Very, very bad (…) I would never have done it before “Klaoudatou told the Reuters agency.
There are many cases like Niki’s throughout Greece.
One of the background ghosts of these elections has a name, it is the railway accident of February 28. A passenger train collided with a freight train running on the same track in northern Greece, shocking the entire country. Later, the reasons that led to the accident were clarified: the train stations did not have enough personnel and the security infrastructures were damaged and old, well below European security standards.
The opposition did not hesitate and accused the New Democracy party for the serious collision that killed 57 people, the most serious train accident in the country in the last century. And it is that, although the problems in the railway system were not new -with decades of negligence-, it was the direct responsibility of the Executive.
The event damaged Mitsotakis’ message and his promise to modernize Greece. But, above all, he showed the urgency of investing in key infrastructures in the country.
In March, after the accident, thousands of young people took to the streets in the biggest protests against the Hellenic government in recent years. Most of the fatalities were students returning to the university after a holiday.
“We know that as young people we have to fight for our rights, for our needs, but it turns out that we even have to fight for our own lives (…) This can only cause anger and indignation. You ask yourself: what kind of society do I live in? No He offers me nothing. He just takes and takes,” said Evangelia Grigoriou, a 22-year-old student whose friend died in the accident.
Yet despite the anger and indignation of young Greeks, Mitsotakis’s popularity has taken a hit but has not plummeted as he continues to lead in opinion polls.
During the last elections, migration was one of the fundamental issues. But the Greece of 2023 seems less concerned with that issue, according to experts and political scientists. However, it continues to be on the campaign agenda.
Despite the criticism against him on this issue, the current prime minister has always defended that his immigration stance is “strict but fair.” In fact, Mitsotakis approved a migration law in the week before the elections with a plan to expand the wall with Turkey and the Center for the Reception and Identification of migrants from the Evros region.
According to him, the Greek authorities will extend the fence up to 35 kilometers in the next 12 months and also the controls, all with public funds.
However, the banning of the far-right party and neo-Nazi ideology Golden Dawn in 2020 makes the most drastic measures on this issue further away. The Greek National Party, affiliated with Golden Dawn, does not have the same acceptance rate according to polls.
In addition, the opposition parties -both Syriza and Pasok- have shown themselves to be much more moderate with regard to migration, something that, together with the relative immigration control of the southern European nation, has diminished its importance compared to 2018.
However, there are other issues that are on the table in this electoral event, problems that concern the majority of Greeks, such as corruption, bureaucracy and the aging of the population, challenges that the new government will have to face.
The Greek Ministry of the Interior calculates that by 10:00 p.m. on May 21, 80% of the votes will have been counted, from which point the Greeks will be closer to meeting their new Executive.
With AP, Reuters, EFE and local media
