Conservative opposition leader Kyriakos Mitsotakis comfortably won Greece’s parliamentary elections, delivering a stinging blow to leftist Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras after a tumultuous four years in office as the country struggled through a crippling financial crisis.
With more than 90 per cent of votes counted, Mitsotakis’ New Democracy party had 39.8 per cent of the votes, compared to 31.5 per cent for Tsipras’ left-wing Syriza party.
The extreme right-wing Golden Dawn party, founded by neo-Nazi supporters, narrowly failed to make the 3% threshold needed to enter parliament — a huge fall of support for a party that had become the third-largest in the Greek legislature during the country’s financial crisis.
The results indicated Greek voters bucked a recent trend in Europe of citizens rejecting the political mainstream and turning to populist and euroskeptic parties, fox news said in a report.
“I asked for a strong mandate to change Greece. You offered it generously,” Mitsotakis said in his victory speech. “From today, a difficult but beautiful fight begins.” he added.
(UNI)
