Greece faces new national elections as early as June 25, with Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis confirming Monday he would not try to build a coalition government — despite having dominated the ballot hours earlier by the most decisive margin in half a century.
It was a tantalizing result for the center-right leader: although Mitsotakis slightly expanded his New Democracy party's standing, got double the votes of leftwing Syriza and nearly four times those of third-place Socialist Pasok, the one-off electoral law in place Sunday denied him a governing majority.
Athenian Fotis Hatzos said that while he had expected ND's win, its hammering of the main opposition party took him by surprise.Markets welcomed what seems to signal the end of the political uncertainty that troubled the NATO and European Union member following the 2009-2018 financial crisis, with the Athens stock exchange general index surging more than 7% Monday and Greek bonds rallying.
Mitsotakis had long suggested he would not seek a coalition partner, whatever the election outcome, in the interest of stable governance. Greece has little tradition of successful coalition governments, despite a series of forced matches during the fraught years of financial crisis. After Mitsotakis, the mandate will pass to Syriza leader Alexis Tsipras, and then to Pasok leader Nikos Androulakis — neither of whom have any realistic chance of success. Each will have a maximum of three days to try to form a coalition. Once all options are exhausted, a senior judge will be appointed caretaker prime minister and new elections called.
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