{"id":2373,"date":"2019-07-07T22:54:12","date_gmt":"2019-07-07T22:54:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/?p=2373"},"modified":"2019-10-26T18:33:11","modified_gmt":"2019-10-26T18:33:11","slug":"greek-elections-centre-right-regains-power","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/2019\/07\/07\/greek-elections-centre-right-regains-power\/","title":{"rendered":"Greek elections: Centre-right regains power"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Greece&#8217;s centre-right opposition party New Democracy has won the nation&#8217;s snap general election.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">With most districts counted, Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras admitted defeat to his rival, Kyriakos Mitsotakis.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">New Democracy has 39.8% of the vote so far, with Mr Tsipras&#8217;s leftist Syriza party in second place with 31.6%. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Current projections give New Democracy an outright majority, as the winner receives 50 extra seats in parliament.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">So far about 88% of districts have returned their results.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The prime minister-elect told supporters he had been given a strong mandate for change.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">&#8220;The  country proudly raises its head again,&#8221; he told the crowd in the  capital Athens, saying he would be a president for all because Greeks  were &#8220;too few to stay divided&#8221;.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Speaking as the results became clear, Mr Tsipras confirmed he had called Mr Mitsotakis to offer him his congratulations.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">&#8220;Today,\n with our head held high we accept the people&#8217;s verdict. To bring Greece\n to where it is today we had to take difficult decisions [with] a heavy \npolitical cost,&#8221; Mr Tsipras told journalists.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Turnout in the election was about 57% \u2013 one of the lowest figures in decades. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\"><li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.bbc.com\/news\/world-europe-48859282\">Five things that matter in Greek election<\/a><\/li><li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.bbc.com\/news\/world-europe-48798764\">Young Greeks lean to conservatives for future<\/a><\/li><li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.bbc.com\/news\/world-europe-48886843\">Mitsotakis and the return of a Greek dynasty<\/a><\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Voting is technically compulsory in the country, though the rule is not enforced.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">There\n have been a half dozen elections in recent years \u2013 and on Sunday, many \nresidents flocked to the beaches or sheltered at home as temperatures \nexceeded 35C in places.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">What do results say so far?<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Early\n results also predicted the far-right Golden Dawn party would be short \nof the 3% minimum needed to enter parliament by the narrowest of margins\n &#8211; at 2.95% for now.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The nationalist pro-Russian Greek Solution \nand MeRA25, the left-wing party of former Finance Minister Yanis \nVaroufakis, were both projected to just exceed the electoral threshold.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">The pendulum swings back<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>By Mark Lowen, BBC News, Athens<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">On\n the streets of Athens, there was a muted reaction as the results were \nannounced. New Democracy&#8217;s win was expected, and the crowds were at \nbeaches rather than rallies.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">After its sixth election in a decade, this tired country seemed to give a collective shrug.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">In\n 2015, New Democracy was seen as the corrupt old guard, blamed for \nleading Greece into the crisis as it swapped power with the Socialists \nover decades. The leftist, populist Alexis Tsipras represented change: \nvowing to rip up the bailout and austerity. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">But he was undone by the humiliating U-turn forced by the EU, as well as perceived mismanagement and scandals.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">And\n some flirting with populism, from the UK to the US, will see in Greece \nthat the political pendulum can swing back to the mainstream.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The centre-left Movement for Change is on 7.9%, followed by the Communist Party on 5.4%.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Greek media also report a ballot box was stolen by an unidentified group which had forced its way into one polling station.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">What happened to Syriza&#8217;s support?<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Prime  Minister Tsipras, who swept to power in 2015, called the elections  after suffering defeat in the local and European votes in May.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">He had toppled New Democracy from power by campaigning against the austerity policies that had affected Greeks for years.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\"><li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.bbc.com\/news\/world-europe-45245969\">Greek bailout crisis in 300 words<\/a><\/li><li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.bbc.com\/news\/world-europe-48069644\">How crisis helped Greeks open their eyes to mental illness<\/a><\/li><li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.bbc.com\/news\/world-europe-48229537\">Love and hate in the EU after two economic rescues<\/a><\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Yet within months, he was forced to accept tough conditions in return for Greece&#8217;s third international bailout. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.bbc.co.uk\/news\/world-europe-34307795\">Mr Tsipras faced a revolt from within his party <\/a>as a result and responded by calling fresh elections, which he won. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">However, his party&#8217;s popularity was dented as unemployment increased, and Greece&#8217;s economy shrank.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Mr Mitsotakis attacked his rival&#8217;s record, saying that economic improvement was too slow. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">He\n also benefited from widespread anger at a landmark deal with North \nMacedonia over the name of the country &#8211; which it shares with a Greek \nregion.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">What does New Democracy stand for?<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">New\n Democracy has promised to lower taxes and privatise services in the \ncountry, which is still feeling the effects of the 2008 financial \ncrisis.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Greece has been in receipt of a series of bailout \nprogrammes over the past decade, which it officially &#8220;exited&#8221; last \nAugust as economic growth returned.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">But youth unemployment remains high, and New Democracy has counted many 18-24 year olds among its supporters.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/ichef.bbci.co.uk\/news\/624\/cpsprodpb\/F2A6\/production\/_107781126_optimised-greeceun-nc.png\" alt=\"A chart shows youth unemployment rates in Greece with the dates of three major bailout packages marked for comparison\"\/><figcaption><br><br><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The potential new prime minister comes from one of Greece&#8217;s long-standing political dynasties.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Kyriakos  Mitsotakis is the son of former Prime Minister Konstantinos Mitsotakis.  His sister, Dora Bakoyannis, was mayor of Athens when the city hosted  the Olympics in 2004, before becoming Greek foreign minister.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed-youtube wp-block-embed is-type-video is-provider-youtube wp-embed-aspect-16-9 wp-has-aspect-ratio\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\nhttps:\/\/youtu.be\/4e5x7o2g6rk\n<\/div><\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Greece&#8217;s centre-right opposition party New Democracy has won the nation&#8217;s snap general election. With most districts counted, Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras admitted defeat to his rival, Kyriakos Mitsotakis. New Democracy has 39.8% of the vote so far, with Mr Tsipras&#8217;s leftist Syriza party in second place with 31.6%. Current projections give New Democracy an outright [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_post_source_name":"","_post_source_url":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1,12],"tags":[1374,10879,2735,11583,9331,8307,8263,2512,8440,9171,12326,11606,5196,911,159,9505,12354,11638,5345,1470,5993,8163,6543,10453,10954,11743,5331,12287,7964,1707,11973,1198,4953,3805,3174,12526,13301,10878,5217,6808,912,8840,6206,12605,7746,6348,3954,594,5784],"class_list":["post-2373","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news","category-world-news","tag-alexis","tag-athens","tag-bbc","tag-capital","tag-city","tag-communist","tag-communist-party","tag-conservatives","tag-crisis","tag-crowd","tag-decade","tag-democracy","tag-economy","tag-election","tag-eu","tag-european","tag-finance","tag-forced","tag-foreign-minister","tag-former-finance-minister","tag-greece","tag-greek","tag-growth","tag-guard","tag-international","tag-majority","tag-mayor","tag-movement","tag-north","tag-olympics","tag-one","tag-parliament","tag-polling-station","tag-president","tag-prime-minister","tag-pro-russian","tag-results","tag-revolt","tag-russian","tag-shares","tag-snap","tag-strong","tag-taxes","tag-uk","tag-unemployment","tag-us","tag-will","tag-who","tag-youth"],"blocksy_meta":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/api-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2373","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/api-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/api-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/api-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/8"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/api-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2373"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/api-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2373\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/api-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2373"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/api-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2373"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/api-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2373"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}