Greeks vote in second general election in 5 weeks, with conservative party favored to win majority
-
Share on Facebook
-
Share on Bluesky
-
Share on X
- Copy Link
ATHENS, Greece (AP) — Polls have opened in Greece in the second general election in less than two months, with the conservative party in power for the last four years a strong favorite to win with a wide majority.
The 55-year-old conservative leader Kyriakos Mitsotakis is eyeing a second four-year term as prime minister after his New Democracy party won by a huge margin in May but fell short of gaining enough parliamentary seats to form a government. With a new electoral law now favoring the winning party with bonus seats, he is hoping to win enough seats to form a strong majority in the 300-member parliament.
His main rival is Alexis Tsipras, the 48-year-old head of the left-wing Syriza party who served as prime minister from 2015-2019, during some of the most turbulent years of Greece’s nearly decade-long financial crisis. Tsipras fared dismally in the May elections, coming a distant second, 20% behind New Democracy. He has been trying to rally his voter base, a task complicated by splinter parties formed by some of his former associates.
Sunday’s vote comes just over a week after hundreds of migrants died and went missing in southern Greece when an over-crowded fishing trawler capsized and sank, drawing criticism over how Greek authorities handled the rescue.
