Mitsotakis returns as prime minister of Greece after winning election

Conservative Party leader Kyriakos Mitsotakis announced on Monday that he will enter his second term as Greece’s prime minister, vowing to speed up institutional and economic reforms after winning his second election in five weeks by voters. got off to a good start.

Voters on Sunday gave conservatives the widest margin of victory in nearly 50 years, lauding Mitsotakis and his New Democracy Party for bringing economic stability to a former EU debt-lag country.

The centrist newspaper Ta Nia ran a headline: “No Enemy, Mitsotakis’ Absolute Advantage.”

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Mitsotakis, who holds 158 seats in the 300-seat parliament, became prime minister of Greece after receiving a formal mandate to form a government from President Katerina Sakelaropoulou.

“I am honored to take on a new mandate for four years,” he told the president, adding that he would “begin full force on major reforms.”

His campaign promises include addressing Greece’s low fertility rate by pumping money into Greece’s public health system, which has been stretched to its limits by the COVID-19 pandemic, and a February train crash that killed 57 people. Improving railroad safety in the wake of the death is included. It was Greece’s worst rail accident.

Mitsotakis’ victory was met with a flood of congratulations from world leaders.

US President Joe Biden said in a statement that he “looks forward to continuing our close cooperation on shared priorities that promote prosperity and security in the region,” while French President Emmanuel Macron said in a statement that “a stronger, more sovereign pledged to cooperate with Greece towards a “Europe with

-“judgment”-

The 55-year-old former McKinsey consultant and Harvard graduate was the man who led the EU nations to two years of strong growth out of the pandemic and had already won big elections in May.

But he refused to form a coalition government because he was five seats short of parliament for a one-party government, effectively putting 9.8 million Greek voters back in the ballot box.

The gamble paid off, as his New Democracy Party secured victory in the May 21 poll, while its closest rival, the Left-wing Syrian Party, led by former Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras, was only a month away. lost tens of thousands of voters compared to Before.

Tsipras admitted a “serious political defeat” and said he would leave his political destiny to the “judgment” of SYRIZA members.

For many Greeks, Tsipras is the prime minister who broke his promise to nearly break Greece out of the euro and end austerity by signing more painful bailout terms.

To the dismay of centrists, Sunday’s move to the right was accompanied by the far-right’s return to parliament.

The Spartiarts (Spartans), endorsed by the imprisoned former spokesman for the neo-Nazi party Golden Dawn, make their parliamentary debut above the 3% threshold.

The Spartan Party and two other smaller nationalist parties with anti-immigrant policies won nearly 13 percent of the vote.

The liberal Cattimerini called the new parliament “Babel” every day.

For Mr. Tsipras, the strongest demonstration of Greece’s far-right parties in decades was the “visible” threat to democracy.

～New Cabinet～

Mitsotakis, who announced his new cabinet, has nominated his trusted troubleshooter George Gerapetritis as Greece’s next foreign minister.

Gerapetritis, a professor of constitutional law, enlisted in March to deal with a train crash and a wiretapping scandal involving the prime minister’s office last year.

Politically moderate former Foreign Minister Nikos Dendias will move to the Ministry of Defense to oversee an ongoing rearmament program against tense neighbor Turkey.

Turkey’s presidential office said on Monday that President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, himself re-elected last month, “expressed his hope that the new term will be beneficial for relations between Turkey and Greece.”

“The presence of strong governments in both countries, which has put people at ease, offers opportunities for future bilateral relations,” Erdogan’s office said.

The new Finance Minister, Kostis Hadjidakis, is a lawyer and a former European Parliament member who ran the Ministry of Development, Labor and Transport.

The new cabinet has 15 women, four of whom are ministers.

Mitsotakis, who first took office in 2019, has not only vowed to make economic stability a centerpiece of his new term.

He has also championed a tough anti-immigrant line and appealed to conservatives in his campaign, although the recent overcrowded trawler sinking failed to draw attention.

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