Conservatives in Greece Take Back Control in National Elections

The center-right conservative New Democracy party won a majority of parliamentary seats in Greece’s national elections on Sunday, July 7 after almost four years of leftist rule by Syriza under Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras. Kyriakos Mitsotakis, son of former conservative Prime Minister Konstantinos Mitsotakis, will become the country’s next head of government.

According to the official results, New Democracy won more than 150 seats, Syriza won 86 seats, the center-left Movement for Change party won 22 seats, the far-left Communists won 15 seats, and the right-wing populist Greek Solution party won 10 seats. MeRA25, a new left-wing political party led by the country’s former finance minister Yanis Varoufakis, won 9 seats.

Elected into power four years ago in 2015, Tsipras and Syriza were considered at the time anti-establishment leftist populist forces that would combat austerity measures and new monetary efforts proposed by the European Union during the aftermath of the 2007-2008 Great Recession. However, due to the deepening of the economic crisis in Greece, Tsipra would implement national austerity and the EU’s recommended monetary policies.