🇬🇷 Greek politics and elections

[oldtimer]

The list is official, 14 political parties were banned from participating in the elections, mostly right of center parties and ND splinters.

There is speculation in the press that more parties will be banned depending on the results of the 1st election in order to ensure that Mitsotakis has a majority after the 2nd elections.

Velopoulos has called for voters of the banned parties to support him as he is only one of the 3 right of center parties that haven't been banned yet, the other is the Tsimeros party, and a party of a ex-senior Judge.

Are they all (rightly or wrongly) perceived as extremist parties or are there mainstream parties the government simply didn’t want siphoning off votes?

Both, and the perception is that they were banned because they were siphoning votes from the government.

In any case it's not unusual for a country that is going through a prolonged economic crisis to turn authoritarian.

And Greece is one of those countries where it's PM has the practical legal powers of an Absolute Monarch:

Since a PM has a majority in Parliament.
And party leaders appoint the MP's in lists.
And Parliament can amend the constitution by simple majority.
And the Judiciary is appointed by the Government.
And there is no Trial by Jury.

There are no separation of powers or term limits.

The only things that can practically restrain a PM in Greece are Oligarchs, powerfull mafia figures, the State Department sometimes, and the EU Development Funds.

Otherwise, it's the personal morality of the person who occupies the office.

[oldtimer]

Summary of Week 6 of the Campaign

After the party bans on Tuesday, everything is quiet.

The Opposition has mostly given up on winning, and is focusing on internal battles over who is the political heir to the Papandreou's

The Government meanwhile is busy promoting it's economic record and promising pies in the sky.

There might be a Leaders debate, but it might not be an actual debate, looks like a Q&A whith no debating.

Apathy is so great that most people have forgotten there is an election, which is a first in my memory.

Most MP's struggle to attract a crowd of a dozen people, even Mitsotakis struggles to get a crowd of more than a thousand even in the largest towns in his rallies, the other party leaders are faring even worse.

So another record low turnout is a very strong possibility, turnout has been gradually declining since 2009 as people become more disappointed.

[Mike88]

New poll:

https://twitter.com/GreeceElects/status/1655276972954603522

[Mike88]

Apathy is so great that most people have forgotten there is an election, which is a first in my memory.

Most MP's struggle to attract a crowd of a dozen people, even Mitsotakis struggles to get a crowd of more than a thousand even in the largest towns in his rallies, the other party leaders are faring even worse.

So another record low turnout is a very strong possibility, turnout has been gradually declining since 2009 as people become more disappointed.

A few campaign rallies/"events" by the different parties:

ND - New Democracy:

Syriza:

PASOK:

KKE - Communist Party:
https://twitter.com/gt_kke/status/1654925960548892672

MeRA25:
https://twitter.com/mera25_gr/status/1655638711973953537

EL - Greek Solution
https://twitter.com/velopky/status/1655605401545592834

Indeed, not the crowds of past elections...

[Mike88]

Worst PASOK poll since October 2021:

https://twitter.com/GreeceElects/status/1658924646714990595

[DavidB.]

Looks like the gap between ND and Syriza will be bigger than you would have expected one month ago. Somehow the momentum changed. What happened?

[President Johnson]

After following this a little closer over recent weeks and with my Dad still considering who to vote for (he currently stays in Greece in our summer domicile near Thessaloniki), I'd actually support for ND in this election. While Mitsotakis had some smaller issues, his administration still put Greece on a path to lasting economic growth, promoted innovation of new businesses and renewable energies and finally balanced the budget (there was even a surplus last year). Mitsotakis also pursued a strong pro-EU and pro-Western course, handled the Covid pandemic relatively well. I guess he's also culturally moderate enough for me. With the moderate left still not a major force, I think a return to Syriza with their reckless spending proposals and plans for nationalization would be toxic for the Greek economy and cause international turmoil.

Lots of challenges remain, but I believe Mitsotakis overall is better suited to tackle them than the alternative. While I doubt it will happen, a coalition of ND and the center-left parties "Movement for change" would also be far from the worst outcome.

[Mike88]

Last campaign rallies/events of the main parties:

ND - New Democracy

Syriza:

PASOK:

KKE - Communist Party

MeRA25:

[Landslide Lyndon]

Tsipras is so desperate and so shameless that he literally begged publicly the former Golden Dawn voters to vote SYRIZA this time because they are both anti-establishment parties.
Now tell me again that the horseshoe theory is wrong.

[jaichind]

Polls close at 7 PM, right?
And

https://ekloges.ypes.gr/current/v/home/en/

is still the link to results right?

Any links to live streams ?

[President Johnson]

Tsipras is so desperate and so shameless that he literally begged publicly the former Golden Dawn voters to vote SYRIZA this time because they are both anti-establishment parties.
Now tell me again that the horseshoe theory is wrong.

Who are you going to support/vote for? PASOK?

[Landslide Lyndon]

Tsipras is so desperate and so shameless that he literally begged publicly the former Golden Dawn voters to vote SYRIZA this time because they are both anti-establishment parties.
Now tell me again that the horseshoe theory is wrong.

Who are you going to support/vote for? PASOK?

Probably. Even though PASOK ran a disappointing campaign. Androulakis lacks both charisma and policy chops.

[Mike88]

Tsipras is so desperate and so shameless that he literally begged publicly the former Golden Dawn voters to vote SYRIZA this time because they are both anti-establishment parties.
Now tell me again that the horseshoe theory is wrong.

Tsipras statement on Golden Dawn voters:

Our goal is for those people who would vote for Golden Dawn, to take them, to win them back from far-right and anti-democratic ideology and attitudes, and explain to them that it is not an anti-systemic thing to vote for Golden Dawn.

At the same time, he's also trying to win votes from ND and PASOK voters.

[Mike88]

Polls close at 7 PM, right?
And

https://ekloges.ypes.gr/current/v/home/en/

is still the link to results right?

Any links to live streams ?

So far, I found the Open TV live feed to start during election day:
 
Open TV

But, other live feeds could appear during the day.

[Landslide Lyndon]

Tsipras is so desperate and so shameless that he literally begged publicly the former Golden Dawn voters to vote SYRIZA this time because they are both anti-establishment parties.
Now tell me again that the horseshoe theory is wrong.

Tsipras statement on Golden Dawn voters:

Our goal is for those people who would vote for Golden Dawn, to take them, to win them back from far-right and anti-democratic ideology and attitudes, and explain to them that it is not an anti-systemic thing to vote for Golden Dawn.

At the same time, he's also trying to win votes from ND and PASOK voters.

I have never witnessed a politician as shameless as Tsipras. The guy is courting Golden Dawn voters while at the same time many prominent members of his party have denounced Zelenski and the Ukrainian government as neo-Nazis.

[Independents for Nihilism]

Perhaps I am dyslexic because I just realized the leader of Syriza is named Tsipras and not Tspiras.

[DavidB.]

I have never witnessed a politician as shameless as Tsipras. The guy is courting Golden Dawn voters while at the same time many prominent members of his party have denounced Zelenski and the Ukrainian government as neo-Nazis.

Would a government with Syriza weaken the pro-Ukraine position of the Greek government in/and the EU?

[Landslide Lyndon]

I have never witnessed a politician as shameless as Tsipras. The guy is courting Golden Dawn voters while at the same time many prominent members of his party have denounced Zelenski and the Ukrainian government as neo-Nazis.

Would a government with Syriza weaken the pro-Ukraine position of the Greek government in/and the EU?

Who knows? Tsipras campaigned as a staunch anti-NATO, anti-EU, anti-American leftie in 2015 and then he became the closest US ally in the Balkans. The guy has no core ideals.

[Mike88]

So, election day is here:

https://twitter.com/EuropeElects/status/1660133315100196867

Until 1pm, around 31.5% of voters had cast a ballot.

[Landslide Lyndon]

Just voted and brought back with me the ballots. Here are some of the most peculiar and funny parties of this election.

United Alliance of Freedom- Party of Greek Hunters and Fishermen



Communist Party of Greece (Marxist-Leninist)



Marxist-Leninist Communist Party of Greece



If...



K.O.T.E.S. (Chickens) which stands for Kapnistikes Omades gia tin Tehni kai thn Eikastiki Sigkrotisi (Smoking Groups for Art and Visual Composition)



OAKKE (Organization for the Reconstruction of the Communist Party of Greece)



Niki (Victory) (pro-Russian party that wants to attract some of the Golden Dawn voters)



ANTARSYA (Anticapitalist Cooperation for Overthrow/Subversion)



OKDE (Organization of Communist Internationalists of Greece)

[Mike88]

Turnout update: Until 5pm, 48.8% of voters had already cast a ballot.

K.O.T.E.S. (Chickens) which stands for Kapnistikes Omades gia tin Tehni kai thn Eikastiki Sigkrotisi (Smoking Groups for Art and Visual Composition)

Love the party's logo.

[Mike88]

Updated live TV feeds:

Open TV:

[jaichind]

Turnout update: Until 5pm, 48.8% of voters had already cast a ballot.

Looks like the pre crisis period of 70%+ turnout are long gone.  I guess the crisis plus economic contraction turned off a bunch of voters from the process. 

[Mike88]

In the Aljazeera live update, their correspondant on the ground says that party sources are telling him that exit polls are giving a very strong ND result and that the margin between ND and Syriza could be larger than expected.

[Mike88]

Turnout update: Until 5pm, 48.8% of voters had already cast a ballot.

Looks like the pre crisis period of 70%+ turnout are long gone.  I guess the crisis plus economic contraction turned off a bunch of voters from the process. 

Maybe the final turnout will be similar with the 2019 one, we'll see. I believe that in the past, voting was mandatory but there were no real penalties for not voting. Nowadays, I believe that was revoked and, of course, the last decade events have taken a tool in the electorate's view of the political system and class.