The conservative Kiriakos Mitsotakis has everything faced to achieve this Sunday the absolute majority in the second Greek elections that are held in just over a month, after staying at the gates of governance after winning at the polls on May 21. His party, the conservative New Democracy, starts as the clear favorite in the polls with around 42% of voting intentions, enough to be able to govern alone thanks to the premium of up to 50 seats assigned by the Greek electoral system in these elections. .
It would be practically the same result that he obtained in the May elections, but then a proportional system approved during the previous government of the leftist Alexis Tsipras was applied, which eliminated this bonus for the winner to favor the creation of a coalition. However, none of the parties with parliamentary representation could agree and Greece returns to the polls today with the new electoral law established by the right, which recovers this prize for the first party to ensure governability.
The until now prime minister maintains a wide distance in the polls against the second party, Tsipras’ Syriza, which would stop at 20% of the votes, just as it happened in May. Mitsotakis does not seem to have suffered any wear and tear from the terrible shipwreck off the Peloponnese coast of a Libyan fishing boat with up to 750 people on board, after which only a hundred people survived, becoming one of the greatest tragedies recorded in the Mediterranean .
Despite the attempts of the NGOs to blame the Greek authorities for negligence in the rescue, the migration drama has had little impact on the electoral campaign. Acting Prime Minister Ioannis Sarmas declared three days of national mourning and a debate between the five parties that won parliamentary representation in May, scheduled for Thursday June 15, the day after the sinking, was cancelled, but Tspiras’s attempts to attacking Mitsotakis’ harsh immigration policy have not shaken the country’s public opinion, more concerned with economic challenges such as inflation or the reduction in unemployment.
In fact, Mitsotakis has been applauded for blaming the traffickers for the disaster and defending the role of the Greek coast guard, about which Tsipras expressed doubts for its response during the rescue since some testimonies from survivors claim that the fishing boat sank afterward. of Coast Guard attempts to tow it by rope, with catastrophic results. The version of this body is that the migrants refused his help and insisted on wanting to continue their journey to Italy. “It is very unfair that some of the so-called solidarity people are insinuating that they did not do their job,” said Mitsotakis, defending his “strict but fair” immigration policy, which has significantly reduced migration flows to Greece despite accusations of violating human rights with hot returns of migrants to Turkey.
