ATHENS, Greece (AP) — Sunday's Greek parliamentary election looks likely to be a dress rehearsal for a new round of voting in the busy summer tourist season — barring a surprise coalition deal by dissonant opposition parties.
Opinion polls indicate that Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis' center-right New Democracy could rake in about 35%, some 6 percentage points ahead of leftwing former prime minister Alexis Tsipras' Syriza party.
But ND still wouldn't have enough to govern alone, and sharp divisions between the two main contenders and the four smaller parties forecast to enter parliament all but preclude a functioning coalition under either ND or Syriza.
A second election on July 2 seems likely. It would be held under a new electoral law giving the winner a boost of up to 50 of Parliament's 300 seats, which the current system doesn't.
With the economy rebounding after the 2009-2018 financial crisis, military tensions with neighboring Turkey — which nearly boiled over in 2020 — in abeyance and benefits blunting the cost-of-living crisis, no single issue dominated campaigning. Much of the discourse focused on potential coalition deals.
Here's a glance at the main candidates:
KYRIAKOS MITSOTAKIS
A former banking executive, the 55-year-old Harvard graduate was born into a political dynasty that produced a former prime minister, a former foreign minister and the current Mayor of Athens. Mitsotakis has led New Democracy — Greece's right-of-center pole for the past half century — since 2016, steering it closer to the political center with a pro-reform and pro-business agenda.
Elected prime minister in 2019, he has been credited with Greece's successful handling of the pandemic and of two crises with neighboring Turkey, while overseeing high growth and job creation. But a wiretapping scandal and a railway disaster damaged his ratings. Nevertheless, Mitsotakis has argued against any post-electoral coalition deal, saying Greece needs a strong government to ensure stability and a return to investment grade for its bonds — ending the last salient reminder of the 2009-2018 financial crisis. Going to a second election would suit him due to the seat bonus, though he's suggested that a third election might be on the cards, if needed.
ALEXIS TSIPRAS
A 48-year-old civil engineering graduate, Tsipras transformed former minnow Syriza into Greece's dominant left-of-center grouping. He became prime minister amid the financial crisis in 2015 — in a surprise coalition with a populist rightwing party — promising to end deep spending cuts. Instead, he oversaw a painful new bailout deal. His second term, from 2015-2019, saw rapprochement with bailout lenders and a historic agreement to normalize ties with neighboring North Macedonia. He's pledging to reverse some previous reforms, expand welfare and legalize same-sex marriage.