Correspondent in Athens,
At first glance, the results of the general elections in Greece are unsurprising. The pollsters got it right this time: New Democracy, the conservative party of outgoing Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis, easily came out on top in the ballot and won an absolute majority with 42% of the vote, or 158 deputies out of 300 in Vouli, Greek Parliament. Kyriakos Mitsotakis obtains the same score as in 2019, in this reinforced proportional vote giving a bonus of 50 seats to the party that came first. Then come, also unsurprisingly, the radical left of Alexis Tsipras, which continues its rout, at less than 19%, ie one point less than the elections of May 21. Then the socialist and communist parties at 11.5 and 8.5% respectively. Not surprisingly either, a declining turnout, due to the inappetence of the Greeks, for this second electoral deadline five weeks apart, to the appeal of the beach at the start of the heat wave and to this expected result.
But that’s where the surprise comes in. Against all expectation and all predictions, the last three parties of this eight-party parliament are small parties, all to the right of the right, even to the extreme and even with Nazi tendencies.
Starting with the “Greek Solution”, a party led by Kyriakos Velopoulos, an ex-journalist close to the Greek Orthodox Church, claiming to hold letters written by Jesus Christ! His nationalist movement already sat in Parliament with a dozen deputies. He comes out this time with two more.
Niki, or Victory in French, a small ultra-nationalist group supported by some of the Orthodox monasteries of Mount Athos. Antivax, anti-abortion, deeply reactionary and pro-Putin. “They are fundamentalists with extremist Christian opinions,” explains Constantin Filis, director of the Institute of International Relations.
Finally, and most unexpectedly, the “Spartans”, with a score that exceeds the two previous parties. A new formation with the same discourse as the previous ones but openly supported by Ilias Kasidiaris, spokesman for the neo-Nazi Golden Dawn party, tried and convicted for belonging to a criminal organization. This movement comes in fifth position, with nearly 5% of the vote. “Justice did everything to close the doors of Parliament to him, but he managed to slip through the window, while remaining in prison,” comments Andréas Drimiotis, political analyst. The unprecedented fact is to see the Spartans, an unknown party a fortnight ago, having no structure but endowed with an organization which seems to be supported by all the supporters of the neo-Nazi Golden Dawn party, including the imprisoned spokesperson continues to communicate on social networks from his cell.
Greece is thus making a turn to the right, like many European countries after the polycrises (economic, Covid, migration) and even permacrises (war in Ukraine, etc.), and even antisystemic.
“The sharp salvoes of left-wing parties and sympathizers against Kyriakos Mitsotakis, calling him a “right-wing candidate” or a “nationalist” have hit the wrong target: The Prime Minister has opened his government to the center and the progressive left by appointing ministers from PASOK, and that made people unhappy on the right and on the left”, continues Constantinos Filis. The increase in the migratory flow, and in particular the shipwreck off the Peloponnese which left more than 700 people missing, was certainly not at the center of the electoral debates, but this tragedy allowed the Spartans to surf on a new migratory threat. “Secondly, the fact that neighboring Turkey has just re-elected President Erdogan and his belligerent rhetoric seriously worries part of the Greek population,” concludes Constantin Filis.
Thus, this victory of Kyriakos Mitsotakis, overshadowed by the entry of these extreme right parties, will undoubtedly abort any period of grace for this new government.
