Kyriakos Mitsotakis wins landslide vote

Athens: A little-known party backed by an imprisoned ex-politician won elections in Greece’s upcoming parliament, signaling a political revival for the far-right.

The Spartans support Ilias Cassidialis, currently serving a 13-year sentence as a criminal gang member, as a former key member of the Golden Dawn, a political party of neo-Nazi origin implicated in multiple violent street attacks. had received

Ahead of Sunday’s elections, parliament had introduced stricter rules on electoral eligibility to block Cassidialis’ candidacy. The political party he founded in prison was also disqualified, switching his support to Sparta.

“We have defeated an arrogant enemy…this is a great victory for Greece and our country,” tweeted Cassidialis from a prison in central Greece. The center-right New Democrats won a landslide victory in Sunday’s general election, giving them a landslide victory over conservatives. Its leader, Kyriakos Mitsotakis, will serve his second term as prime minister.

Jubilant Mitsotakis supporters gathered outside the party headquarters in Athens, cheering, clapping, setting off fireworks and waving blue and white party flags. Nearly perfect results show the party winning just over 40.5% of the vote, crushing its main rival, the Left-wing Syrian Party, which had struggled to reach 18%, two percentage points lower than the previous election in May. .

“Today’s election results will open a new historical chapter for Greece on its journey,” Mitsotakis said in a televised statement. He said voters “have given us a strong mandate to move faster towards the great change this country needs. It permanently ended the traumatic cycle of lying and toxicity that had been going on.”

In his second term as prime minister, he said he would “transform Greece at a dynamic pace of development, to increase salaries and reduce inequality, to create a better and free public health care system, to become a more effective and digitalized nation and a stronger nation.” can be realized,” he added.

Sunday’s voting ended in about a week After a migrant ship capsized and sank off the west coast of Greece, which has left hundreds dead and missing, calling into question the actions of Greek authorities and the country’s strict immigration policy. But the disaster, one of the worst in the Mediterranean region in recent years, did not affect the election as domestic economic issues were at the forefront of voter concerns.