Greece is starting to go to the polls with a view to a foreseeable election repeat

The citizens of Greece have already started heading to the polling stations this Sunday for one of the most unpredictable elections in the country’s recent history. Not so much which party will get the most votes, as all the polls point to the new democracy of the current Prime Minister, Kyriakos Mitsotakis, as well as the fact that the electoral system that will be launched at this meeting will take the country to a coalition or, if there is no match, on new elections in July.

At stake are the 300 seats of the Council of the Hellenes, Greece’s unicameral parliament that has seen all sorts of mobilizations from Athens’ central Syntagma Square in recent years, with citizens basically complaining about a deterioration in their standard of living and from one financial rescue the country only completely turned the page last year.

Traditionally, the Greek electoral system has favored the party with the most votes, with a bonus that gave it virtually complete freedom when it came to forming a government. However, SYRIZA’s executive reformed the law in 2018 to create a proportional distribution with no restrictions or rewards that will be tested for the first and last time next Sunday. The deputies are divided equally among all those groups that exceed the 3% threshold.

With this new system a party should get 46% of the vote, something that had never happened in the past three decades, to rule alone. The polls put New Democracy in a range fluctuating between 31% and 36%, while SYRIZA’s intent to vote is between 24% and 29%.

Thus, the Panhellenic Socialist Movement (PASOK) ranks third (about 10%) in a hypothetical coalition it would hold the key to power. Thus, he could decide whether to allow Mitsotakis a second term or opt for the “progressive coalition” that SYRIZA demands, with whom he shares part of the program, but also potential voters.