Greek general elex on May 21; second ballot possible in early July, PM Mitsotakis says

Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis on Tuesday announced general elections for Sunday, May 21, as widely expected. He made the announcement during the opening a Cabinet meeting at his Maximos Mansion office, where he also directly cited the prospect of a second election, coming weeks after the first, in order for a majority government to emerge.

“The country and its citizens require a clear horizon; national elections will take place at the end of the four-year term, on Sunday, May 21. If a second ballot is necessary to avoid the hazard of a simple representational (result), this will be held, at the latest, in early July,” he added.

Mitsotakis was referring to an election law change by the previous leftist SYRIZA government, prior to 2019, changing Greece’s electoral system to a more simple representational system. The latter essentially requires the first-past-the-poll party to achieve a greater percentage of the valid general vote in order to form a majority government.

In more-or-less revealing what his incumbent center-right party’s main election message will be, Mitsotakis ticked off the crises faced by the government over the past four years, adding that “the state was successful in creating strong resistances… support for incomes will continue until the global threat of price increases continues.”