2023 Greek legislative election

Parliamentary elections will be held in Greece on 21 May 2023.[1][2][3] It is considered a snap election, as it is conducted a few weeks before the end of term for the Mitsotakis cabinet. All 300 seats in the Hellenic Parliament will be contested.

2023 Greek legislative election
21 May 2023
All 300 seats in the Hellenic Parliament
151 seats needed for a majority
 
Leader Kyriakos Mitsotakis Alexis Tsipras Nikos Androulakis
Party ND Syriza PASOK–KINAL
Last election 39.85%, 158 seats 31.53%, 86 seats 8.10%, 22 seats
Seats needed Steady Increase 65 Increase 129
 
Leader Dimitris Koutsoumpas Kyriakos Velopoulos Yanis Varoufakis
Party KKE EL MeRA25
Last election 5.30%, 15 seats 3.70%, 10 seats 3.44%, 9 seats
Seats needed Increase 136 Increase 141 Increase 142
Map of electoral districts.
Incumbent Prime Minister

Kyriakos Mitsotakis
ND


They will be the first elections since 1990 in which the electoral system will not use a bonus seats system, after the 2016 repeal of semi-proportional representation. Due to this factor, which causes the formation of a coalition government difficult due to the parties' disagreements, many analysts see that the possibility of a second election later this year is high.[4]

Context
Advertisement of New Democracy in Athens for the 2023 Greek legislative election, reading "FIRMLY DARINGLY FORWARD". Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis (ND) is depicted.

On 8 February 2023, Parliament voted to prohibit parties led nominally or actually by convicts from running in the elections, a provision possibly applicable in the case of National Party – Greeks party. New Democracy and PASOK voted for the law, while the Communist Party of Greece, Greek Solution and MeRA25 voted against, with Syriza voting present.[5][6]

Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis visited President Katerina Sakellaropoulou on 22 April 2023 in order to request the dissolution of the Parliament due to an national issue of extraordinary importance (pursuant to Article 41 of the Constitution of Greece); the issue cited was the need of political stability for the achievement of investment-grade.[7][8] The election day was set for Sunday, May 21st,[8] a day shy of the 30-day period within which elections must be held following the dissolution of the Parliament.

Electoral system
See also: Elections in Greece, List of parliamentary constituencies of Greece, and Apportionment in the Hellenic Parliament

The electoral law in effect for the 2023 legislative election is to be the one voted in 2016 by the second last legislature, where SYRIZA held a plurality.[9] This is due to a constitutional provision on amendments to the electoral law: a two-thirds majority (200 or more votes of the Vouli) is necessary for the law to take immediate effect, and for want of such a supermajority – an electoral law comes into effect only in the second-next election.

SYRIZA's 2016 law is a switch back to simple proportional representation. It ditched the 50-seat majority bonus, such bonus having been in place in various forms since 1990.

In January 2020, soon after returning to power, New Democracy, which has always been a proponent of majority bonuses since 1974, passed a new electoral law to reinstate the bonus, albeit under a very different formula. The party list coming first would receive 20 extra seats (down from 50, with the remaining seats up from 250 to 280), with a new sliding scale disproportionally helping larger party lists: those receiving between 25% and 40% of the vote would receive one seat for every half percentage point in this range (up to 30 seats), before the proper proportional distribution begins. A winning party could receive up to 50 extra seats. This 2020 law also lacked the supermajority to take immediate effect, and as a result, will take effect only in the next election after 2023.[10]

Compulsory voting will be in force for the elections, with voter registration being automatic.[11] However, none of the legally existing penalties or sanctions have been enforced in recent years.[12]

Campaign period
The general secretary of the Communist Party of Greece Dimitris Koutsoumpas in the general election gathering of the Communist Party in Syntagma square, Athens.

Officially, the election period began in 22 April, although the parties had begun to intensify their campaigning in the days after the first announcement of the date of election.

The Greek politicians have employed various methods to outreach their positions, such as town hall meetings, speeches in cafes and squares, methods which are employed both by Kyriakos Mitsotakis and Alexis Tsipras.

New Democracy is trying to promote an agenda that it represents reform and opening of Greece worldwide, while associating Syriza, the rival party, with populism.[13] New Democracy's campaign focuses on tax cuts and lower unemployment promises, as well generically on the economy, while Syriza's one focuses on the 2022 wiretapping scandal, blaming New Democracy for the inadequate safety measures that resulted on the Tempi rail crash,[14] as well the lack of trust of the citizens to Kyriakos Mitsotakis, the housing crisis, the problems of the middle class and others.

In the other side, PASOK, once one of the two main parties, has a campaign focusing on meritocracy, green transition, strong healthcare system and transparency. Its leader, Nikos Androulakis, decries both Mitsotakis and Tsipras because they supported austerity measures. He insists that a coalition government, in order to participate in it, must have a nonpartisan leader voted on consensus.[15]

The Communist Party of Greece has as main slogan for this election, "Them alone and all of us!"[16] Its own campaign is based on the responsibilities of the three parties above in the austerity measures, the similarities between the three parties (as they have voted the most of New Democracy's laws)[17] in their agendas and governing policy, giving the PASOK-ND coalition as an example, workers' issues such as the exploitation of workers from employers and bad working conditions in many companies among others, the Tempi rail crash and the chronic neglect of infrastructure from earlier governments, disengagement from the war in Ukraine, on which Greece is a significant supplier of Ukraine, and problems of the middle class such as education, housing crisis and living standards. The main people in the party also emphasize the need for a stronger representation of the Communist Party in the elections, in order to increase the representation of the people and the workers'-students' struggle in the parliament, while emphasizing that "each vote that goes to the Communist Party, remains there and strengthens the struggle".[18][19]

Main party slogans
Party or alliance Original slogan English translation
ND « ΣΤΑΘΕΡΑ ΤΟΛΜΗΡΑ ΜΠΡΟΣΤΑ » "FIRMLY DARINGLY FORWARD"
SYRIZA « Δικαιοσύνη Παντού » "Justice Everywhere"
PASOK-KINAL « Η κοινωνία στο προσκήνιο! » "Society at the forefront!"
KKE « ΜΟΝΟΙ ΤΟΥΣ ΚΑΙ ΟΛΟΙ ΜΑΣ » "THEM ALONE AND ALL OF US"
EL « Πρώτα η Ελλάδα, Πρώτα οι Έλληνες
Παίρνουμε την Ελλάδα στα χέρια μας! »		 "Greece First, Greeks First
We take Greece onto our own hands!"
MeRA25 « Όλα μπορούν να είναι αλλιώς! » "Everything can be different!"

New Democracy also used the motto Greek: Η Ελλάδα δε γυρίζει πίσω, lit. 'Greece is not going back', a prominent motto of the party under Konstantinos Mitsotakis' leadership during the 1993 Greek legislative election.[20][21][22]Additionally, ΚΚΕ supplemented its main slogan with: Greek: #ΤΩΡΑ_ΚΚΕ, lit. '#NOW_ΚΚΕ',[23] while PASOK-KINAL also used a secondary motto in speeches and TV spots: Greek: Απόφαση Αλλαγής, lit. 'Decision for Change'[24][25]

Candidates' debates

On 29 April, a cross-party meeting chaired by interim Interior Minister Calliope Spanou reached an agreement to hold a six party leaders' debate on 10 May. The debate took place at 10 May 2023, 11 days before the elections. In the debate, the leaders of all 6 political parties of the Greek Parliament participated, along with 6 journalists representing all major Greek TV networks.[26]There were 6 rounds for 6 themes. The first (1st) theme concerned: Economy, Growth and Development, the second (2nd): Foreign policy and Defense, the third (3rd): State, Institutions and Transparency, the fourth (4th) Health, education and social welfare, the fifth (5th) Energy and the Environment, and the sixth (6th): New Generation (i.e., the youth). Each journalist had 30 seconds to make a question to a candidate and 15 seconds for a follow-up question.[27] The candidates had 90 seconds to answer the first question and 45 seconds for the follow-up.[28]The journalists asking the questions were Sia Kosioni, Antonis Sroiter, Mara Zacharea, Rania Tzima, Panagiotis Stathis and Georgios Papadakis.[29]

2023 Greek legislative election debate
Date Time Organisers Moderator(s)     P  Present    A  Absent invitee  N  Non-invitee 
ND
Mitsotakis		 Syriza
Tsipras		 PASOK-KINAL
Androulakis		 KKE
Koutsoumpas		 EL
Velopoulos		 MeRA25
Varoufakis		 Refs
10 May 2023 9:00PM ERT1[lower-alpha 1] Giorgos Kouvaras P P P P P P [30]
  1. Was also broadcast on all 6 nationwide TV channels,
    Alpha TV, ANT1, Mega Channel, Open TV,Skai TV, Star Channel

Opinion polls
Main article: Opinion polling for the 2023 Greek legislative election
Local regression trend line of poll results from 7 July 2019 to July 2023, with each line corresponding to a political party.

Contesting parties, alliances and independents

On 2 May 2023, the Supreme Court ruled that 27 political parties, 8 alliances and one independent had met the criteria to contest the election. The names of the 36 entities are listed below in alphabetical order.

  1. Antarsya (Front of the Greek Anticapitalist Left)
  2. Alliance of Subversion
  3. Assembly of Greeks
  4. Breath of Democracy
  5. Communist Party of Greece
  6. Communist Party of Greece (Marxist–Leninist)
  7. Course of Freedom
  8. Dimosthenis Vergis - Greek Ecologists
  9. EAN
  10. Ecologist Greens - Green Unity
  11. European Realistic Disobedience Front - Alliance for the Rupture (MeRA25)
  12. Free Again
  13. Greek Solution
  14. Greek Vision
  15. Green Movement
  16. I Unite Freedom Alliance
  17. Marxist–Leninist Communist Party of Greece
  18. Movement 21
  19. Movement of the Poor
  20. National Creation
  21. New Democracy
  22. New Home
  23. Northern League - Krama
  24. Now All Together
  25. Organisation of Internationalist Communists of Greece
  26. Organization for the Reconstruction of the Communist Party of Greece
  27. PASOK – Movement for Change
  28. Political Initiative
  29. Smoking Groups for Art and Artistic Creation
  30. Social
  31. Society of Values-Liberal Alliance
  32. Stefanos Proitsis
  33. Syriza - Progressive Alliance (Coalition of the Radical Left)
  34. Union of Centrists
  35. Unity - Truth
  36. Victory

A large number of Far Right parties were stopped from running in the elections.[31]

References
  1. "Στις 11 ο Μητσοτάκης στη Σακελλαροπούλου: Διαλύεται η Βουλή, τι θα επικαλεστεί για τις πρόωρες εκλογές". The TOC (in Greek). 22 April 2023. Retrieved 22 April 2023.
  2. PM officially sets May 21 election date Kathimerini, 28 March 2023
  3. Newsroom. "PM requests dissolution of Parliament, proclamation of elections | eKathimerini.com". www.ekathimerini.com. Retrieved 22 April 2023.
  4. "Extremely complex yet surprisingly simple". www.ips-journal.eu. 15 May 2023. Retrieved 18 May 2023.
  5. "Far-right party banned from upcoming election in Greece". ABC News.
  6. "Greek parliament approves amendment to exclude far-right party from elections".
  7. "Μητσοτάκης: Εκλογές με εθνικό λόγο την επενδυτική βαθμίδα". www.news247.gr (in Greek). 22 April 2023. Retrieved 17 May 2023.
  8. Newsroom (22 April 2023). "PM requests dissolution of Parliament, proclamation of elections | eKathimerini.com". www.ekathimerini.com. Retrieved 17 May 2023.
  9. Law 4406–ΦΕΚ 113/2016.
  10. "Parliament votes to change election law | Kathimerini". www.ekathimerini.com. Retrieved 25 January 2020.
  11. "Constitution of Greece" (PDF). Hellenic Parliament. Retrieved 5 November 2011. Article 51, Clause 5: The exercise of the right to vote is compulsory.
  12. Υποχρεωτική η ψήφος αλλά "παγωμένες" οι κυρώσεις [Voting is mandatory, but penalties "frozen"]. Eleftherotypia (in Greek). Archived from the original on 17 February 2013. Retrieved 7 November 2011.
  13. Τσιλιόπουλος, Ευθύμιος (2 May 2023). "Greek elections: Campaign with town hall meetings and social media – What Mitsotakis changes and what he's keeping from the 2019 pre-election model". Οικονομικός Ταχυδρόμος - ot.gr (in Greek). Retrieved 18 May 2023.
  14. Psaropoulos, John. "Greece prepares for elections that may herald a new political era". www.aljazeera.com. Retrieved 18 May 2023.
  15. Psaropoulos, John. "Greece prepares for elections that may herald a new political era". www.aljazeera.com. Retrieved 18 May 2023.
  16. "Εκλογές 2023: Με σύνθημα «Μόνο ο λαός σώζει τον λαό» το προεκλογικό σποτ του ΚΚΕ (Βίντεο)". www.parapolitika.gr. Retrieved 18 May 2023.
  17. 902.gr (1 February 2023). "Ο ΣΥΡΙΖΑ ψήφισε το 50% και το ΠΑΣΟΚ το 70% των νομοσχεδίων της ΝΔ (AUDIO)". 902.gr (in Greek). Retrieved 18 May 2023.
  18. Δ. Κουτσούμπας: Δυνατό ΚΚΕ για να είναι δυνατός ο λαός και όχι η επόμενη αντιλαϊκή κυβέρνηση. www.amna.gr. Retrieved 18 May 2023.
  19. Newsroom. "Κουτσούμπας από Σύνταγμα: Η ψήφος του ΚΚΕ δεν παζαρεύεται". www.ieidiseis.gr (in Greek). Retrieved 18 May 2023.
  20. "Κυρ. Μητσοτάκης: Η Ελλάδα δεν γυρίζει πίσω - Η Ελλάδα προχωράει μπροστά (vid) | Liberal.gr". www.liberal.gr (in Greek). Retrieved 17 May 2023.
  21. "Κωστής Χατζηδάκης στη «ΜτΚ»: Η Ελλάδα δεν θα γυρίσει πίσω!". www.makthes.gr (in Greek). Retrieved 17 May 2023.
  22. "Τάκης Θεοδωρικάκος: "Μήνυμα νίκης της ΝΔ" – "Η Ελλάδα δεν γυρίζει πίσω!"". eReportaz (in Greek). 17 May 2023. Retrieved 17 May 2023.
  23. Epochi, rizospastis gr | Synchroni. "ΤΩΡΑ ΙΣΧΥΡΟ ΚΚΕ - ΕΚΛΟΓΕΣ 2023 | ΡΙΖΟΣΠΑΣΤΗΣ". www.rizospastis.gr. Retrieved 17 May 2023.
  24. "ΠΑΣΟΚ-ΚΙΝΑΛ: «Κάνε τον θυμό, Απόφαση Αλλαγής» - Η καμπάνια για τις εκλογές | LiFO". www.lifo.gr (in Greek). 28 March 2023. Retrieved 17 May 2023.
  25. "ΠΑΣΟΚ-ΚΙΝΑΛ: «Στις 21 Μαΐου απόφαση αλλαγής του καχεκτικού και ξεπερασμένου δικομματισμού»". ΤΑ ΝΕΑ (in Greek). 14 April 2023. Retrieved 17 May 2023.
  26. "Greek Legislative elections debate video". www.youtube.com.
  27. Newsroom. "Ντιμπέιτ πολιτικών αρχηγών: Οι θεματικές ενότητες και η διαδικασία". www.kathimerini.gr. Retrieved 14 May 2023.
  28. Newsroom. "Ντιμπέιτ πολιτικών αρχηγών: Οι θεματικές ενότητες και η διαδικασία". www.kathimerini.gr. Retrieved 14 May 2023.
  29. "Debate information". www.neolaia.gr. Retrieved 19 May 2023.
  30. "Greek Party Leaders' Debate Set for May 10". Greek Reporter. 29 April 2023. Retrieved 4 May 2023.
  31. https://www.dw.com/en/exclusion-of-far-right-parties-narrows-field-for-election/a-65591108

Works cited
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