Greece election: Center-right Mitsotakis leads to victory short of majority

Greece’s conservative New Democracy won Sunday’s election, falling a few seats short of an outright victory.

Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis’ party polled nearly 41%, based on more than two-thirds of the vote.

Left-of-center rival Alexis Tsipras congratulated him, as his party was set for a poor result with 20%.

Despite the major victory of the center right, it may opt for a second round of voting instead of seeking a coalition.

An initial exit poll showing a victory for the center right was greeted with cheers at the New Democracy headquarters in Athens. As the results came in, the pre-election polls clearly underestimated the large margin between the two leading parties.

Another of the big winners in the election is Syriza’s socialist rival Pasok, which is set to win 12% of the vote.

That would make the party a potential kingmaker when the prime minister seeks coalition talks in the coming days.

Mr Mitsotakis’ New Democracy has governed Greece for the past four years, and can boast that the country’s growth last year was close to 6%.

What he is asking the country is that he is the only one who can be trusted to lead the Greek economy forward and consolidate the new growth. Most Greeks seem to have responded positively – and more than expected.

Giorgos Adamopoulos, 47, voted for New Democracy a few hundred meters from the Acropolis in Athens.

Greece deserves a better form of politics, he told the BBC, but he supported Mr Mitsotakis because he was impressed with his record after four years as prime minister.

Four years ago winning 41% of the vote was enough to secure a majority in Greece’s 300-seat parliament.

Now it needs more than 45%, because the winning party is no longer entitled to a 50-seat bonus in the first round, making the second round more likely.

Although New Democracy looks to Pasok for support, socialist leader Nikos Androulakis may find it difficult to work in government with Mr Mitsotakis because of a wiretap scandal last year.

Mr Androulakis believes the prime minister knew he was one of many people targeted by illegal spyware.

The scandal led to the resignation of a nephew of Mr Mitsotakis, who worked as the prime minister’s chief of staff, as well as the head of Greek intelligence.

Mitsotakis may decide to channel all his energy into the second round of voting. That could give him an absolute majority and another four years with a cabinet of his choosing.

However, the election campaign was overshadowed by a railway tragedy in February that killed 57 people, most of them students.

Opposition parties have highlighted the disaster as a symptom of a dysfunctional state cut to the bone after years of economic crisis and underinvestment.

First-time voters Chrysanthi and Vaggelis, both 18, voted for Syriza because their generation wanted “something new, something different”.

“I think everyone deserves a second chance. [Tsipras] only four years,” said Chrysanthi.