Uncertainty and discontent dominate the elections in Greece

Despite a scandal-ridden mandate, Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis, a conservative, starts as the favorite in the of the general elections that will be held this Sunday. Polls give him a seven-point advantage over his main opponent, former prime minister Alexis Tsipras, leader of Syriza. One of the keys to the contest is the fragmentation and internecine disputes between the left-wing formations, which makes a hypothetical coalition government between them difficult.

Because of this, most analysts predict that after the elections it will be impossible to form the Executive Power, and that the country is heading towards a likely second round which will be held at the beginning of July. Given Greece’s complex electoral system, it is also unclear whether a second round will make governance easier. “It is very difficult to predict what the result and the color of the next government will be,” says journalist Jenny Tsiropoulou.

The election comes almost three months after the worst train tragedy in the country’s history, which killed 57 people, most of them students. The accident caused great social indignation and led to the immediate resignation of the Minister of Transport and the calling of various strikes due to the lack of investment in the sector.

The second scandal that marked Mitsotakis’s government, known as the Predator, is realization illegal wiretapping of opposition politicians, journalists and the military. But the issue that most worries Greeks, and which dominated the election campaign, is the loss of purchasing power of the population due to galloping inflation in recent years and the persistence of low wages.

High prices and low wages

While the average monthly income in the country is approx 800 or 900 euros, prices are not lower than in many Spanish regions. For example, a liter of milk costs two euros, and the rent for a one-room apartment in Athens rarely falls below 550 euros. It is estimated that apartment prices have increased by 40% in a few years.. “In general, there is an atmosphere of disillusionment with the political class as a whole. Many more voters than those who enthusiastically vote for a candidate will choose the least bad one”, comments Tsiropoulou, who describes the campaign as flat and without surprises, and the candidates are doing their best to attract young votes.

Among the arguments with which the Mitsotakis government boasted of good governance are reduction of unemployment up to 10.9% —in Spain it is 13%—, and stabilization of the country’s finances thanks to the arrival of more foreign investments, despite the fact that Greece is still one of the most indebted countries in the world.

Alexis Tsipras, LEFTIST

Father and victim of the 2015 cuts at the behest of the trio

At the age of 40, Alexis Tsipras He shook up European politics in 2015 by winning Greek elections at the head of a new alternative left formation after swallowing up Pasok, Greece’s historic socialist party. At that time, the country was in a deep debt crisis, which shook the euro project, and which placed Athens under the guardianship of a steering committee consisting of the European Union, the European Central Bank and the IMF, the so-called triple.

Despite his proclamations against the austerity measures implemented by the previous government, Tsipras had no choice but to finally apply the Troika’s bitter prescriptions based on austerity policies. This eroded his figure and eventually led to his defeat at the polls four years later.

The most left-wing sectors of the Greek political scene, such as the Communist Party, have never forgiven him for his “betrayal”, which makes it difficult for him to return to power after Sunday’s elections, as they refuse to form a coalition government with him.

The son of a wealthy public works contractor, Tsipras began his militancy in the Communist Party, which he left to join Synaspismos, a new left-wing formation.

With a reputation as a pragmatist, Tsipras became the leader of this formation at the age of only 33. In 2009, already on the Syriza list, he was elected as a representative in the parliamentary elections for the first time. Despite the election defeat in 2019, Tsipras remained the leader of Syriza, which enjoys the status of the first prominent opposition party.

Kyriakos Mitsotakis conservative

Prime Minister questioned over wiretapping scandal

The first minister Kyriakos MitsotakisThe 55-year-old belongs to one of the most traditional families in Greek politics. His father, Konstantinos Mitsotakis, was also prime minister, between 1990 and 1993, while his sister Dora was mayor of Athens during the Olympics, a position her nephew “inherited” in 2019.

Due to the repression that followed the 1967 military coup, Mitsotakis was born and lived in Paris until he was six, when the family was able to return to Greece. He later left the country again to study at the prestigious Harvard, where he began a brilliant academic career specializing in international relations. After working for five years for various investment banks in Greece, he entered politics in 2003 when he was elected as a deputy of the New Democracy, and he remained in that position until the election of the country’s main leader in 2019. In 2013, he was appointed Minister of Public Administration, and remained so until the fall of the conservative Antonis Samaras government two years later.

The biggest scandal of the Mitsotakis government broke out last year: illegal wiretapping. The case was condemned by Nikos Androulakis, leader of Pasok, Greece’s historic socialist party and the third force in parliament. The scandal, along with the often excessive use of violence by the police force, has raised concerns in the country about the declining quality of Greek democracy. In fact, according to Reporters Without Borders, the country lags behind the EU in terms of media freedom.