June 2023 Greek Legislative Election

Snap parliamentary elections were held in Greece on 25 June 2023. All 300 seats in the Hellenic Parliament were contested. Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis called for the snap vote after the May 2023 elections did not result in any party gaining a majority, although his centre-right New Democracy made unanticipated gains and increased its share of the vote. As a result, no coalition government was formed by any of the parties eligible to do so.

In contrast to the May elections, the June vote used a majority bonus system, making a majority government more likely. On 25 May 2023, as required by Greece's constitution, President Katerina Sakellaropoulou appointed Ioannis Sarmas as caretaker prime minister until the formation of the next government following the elections.

New Democracy increased their number of seats in parliament, achieving a majority, while the main opposition Syriza lost seats. Minor parties Spartans, Victory, and Course of Freedom entered parliament for the first time.

Electoral system

In January 2020, soon after returning to power in the 2019 legislative election, New Democracy, which has always been a proponent of majority bonuses since 1974, passed a new electoral law to reinstate the bonus that had been eliminated by the SYRIZA- ANEL coalition government's 2016 law (which established a purely proportional system with a 3% electoral thereshold), albeit under a very different formula. The party list coming first with at least 25% of the votes would receive 20 extra seats, with one more seat for every half percentage point above 25%, to a maximum of 50 extra seats at 40% (or more) of the votes. Once this bonus has been attributed, the proper proportional distribution begins for the remaining seats, which can range from 250 if one party gathered at least 40%, to 300 if no party reached 25%. This 2020 law would take effect starting from the next Greek election after the May 2023 election.

A 2019 law granted the right to vote for Greeks abroad who have lived for two years in Greece during the previous 35 years and who have submitted a tax return during the year of the election or the previous year. Voters from abroad choose the national-wide ballot of their desired party without choosing candidates, and their vote is counted equally in final results. Voting is theoretically compulsory, with voter registration being automatic, but the penalties and sanctions in place for those who do not vote are unenforced.

Contesting parties, alliances and independents

On 8 June 2023, the Supreme Court ruled that 26 political parties, 4 alliances and 2 independents had met the criteria to contest the election. Nineteen of these had also participated in the previous election. The names of the 32 entities are listed below in alphabetical order.

# Anticapitalist Left Cooperation for the Overthrow
# Assembly of Greeks
# Athanasios Georgiou (Independent)
# Breath of Democracy
# Communist Party of Greece
# Communist Party of Greece (Marxist–Leninist)
# Course of Freedom
# Digital Hellenism in the Whole
# Ecologist Greens – Green Unity
# Greek Ecologists
# Greek Solution
# Green & Purple
# Marxist–Leninist Communist Party of Greece
# European Realistic Disobedience Front 25
# Movement of the Poor
# National Front
# New Democracy
# Organization for the Reconstruction of the Communist Party of Greece
# Organisation of Internationalist Communists of Greece
# Panathinaikos Movement
# Panhellenic Socialist Movement – Movement for Change
# Patriotic Coalition
# Popular European Party
# Republican Party of Greece – Technocratic Republican Reforming Front of Patriots
# Spartans
# Spentzas Polykarpos, Radio Operator of the Ship "Pothiti", 1978 – Bermuda Triangle – UFO – USO Extraterrestrials – Einstein – Santorinis Pavlos (Independent)
# Syriza – Progressive Alliance
# Union of Centrists
# Democratic Patriotic Movement – Victory
# Vision for the Greek Renaissance
# Voice of Logic
# Well – Movement

Slogans

Parties

Opinion polls

Results

New Democracy won 41% of the vote, which allowed it to gain 50 bonus seats. This led to New Democracy winning a majority of seats. Syriza won nearly 18% of the vote. The newly created Spartans party won 4.7% of the vote, which allowed it to enter Parliament. Overall, eight parties crossed the 3% threshold to enter Parliament. The turnout was at 54%, which was 7pp lower than the turnout in the May election. Reacting to his party's victory, Mitsotakis said, "The people have given us a safe majority. Major reforms will go ahead quickly." According to political analyst Nick Malkoutzis, "Mitsotakis has been rewarded by voters as the leader who has led Greece out of a severe debt crisis and three international bailouts back into a growth path. Someone who has kept, at least some, of his pledges which is more than many in Greece had previously done."

By region

See also

*List of members of the Hellenic Parliament, June 2023

References

{{Greek elections

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