Greek conservatives score landslide election win as country rejects austerity
Greece’s ruling Syriza party suffered a landslide defeat by the conservative New Democracy in elections on Sunday, bringing an end to the government of Alexis Tsipras.
Four years after his party surged to victory, Mr Tsipras was voted out of power by a Greek public tired of his government’s austerity measures.
Greeks turned instead to the scion of one of the country’s most powerful political families. Kyriakos Mitsotakis is to be sworn in as prime minister on Monday after his centre-Right party took 39.8 percent of the votes, compared to 31.5 percent for Mr Tsipras' left-wing movement, with more than 94 percent of ballots counted.
Speaking late on Sunday, Mr Mitsotakis vowed that the country would "proudly" enter a post-bailout period of "jobs, security and growth".
"A painful cycle has closed," he said, adding that Greece would "proudly raise its head again" on his watch.
"I want to see this people prosper. I want to see the children who left to return," he later told party supporters.
Mr Tsipras said his party now would work to protect the rights of working Greeks as "a responsible but dynamic opposition" to the government.
He added that he hoped New Democracy's return to government after four years in opposition "will not lead to vengeance ... particularly toward the significant achievements to protect the social majority and the workers."
Mr Tsipras called early elections after suffering defeat to New Democracy in the European and local elections earlier this year.
The result was a crushing rejection for the Eurosceptic “new left” of Syriza, which was borne to office four years ago on a pledge to defy the austerity demands of the European Union and the International Monetary Fund. It appeared voters had not forgiven Mr Tsipras for caving to those demands and ignoring the results of a referendum he had called.
Meanwhile Yannis Vaorufakis, the “rock star” economics professor who was briefly Mr Tsipras’ finance minister, limped in at the back of the field. His new Democracy in Europe 2025 party was on course to win just 3 to 5 per cent of the vote, according to exit polls, and it was not clear if it would clear the minimum threshold to enter parliament.
On the face of it, victory for the pro-European, centre-Right New Democracy party is good news for the EU.
But Mr Mitsotakis’ critics accuse him of being as much of a populist as Mr Tsipras once was — and of relying on his party’s hard-Right to get to power.
Under his leadership, New Democracy campaigned against the deal Mr Tsipras agreed with Macedonia, under which Greece lifted its veto on its neighbour joining Nato and the EU in return for the country changing its name to North Macedonia. The deal was backed by the EU and Nato, but became a populist rallying call for Greeks who accuse the country of trying to lay claim to the ancient Greek birthplace of Alexander the Great. It was also opposed by the Kremlin, which would prefer North Macedonia to be in its sphere of influence.
Mr Tsipras was able to point to the shoots of economic recovery as evidence the austerity measures he reluctantly agreed to were working. Overall unemployment has fallen from 28 per cent in 2013 to 18 per cent this year, while youth unemployment has dropped from more than 50 per cent to around 40 per cent.
But it was not enough to convince Greek voters tired of living under the burden of high taxes and social security payments.
