Greece’s leftist Syriza party has claimed its second national election victory in less than a year. The independent nationalist ANEL party has announced they will be junior coalition partners in the new government, Deutsche Welle reports.
Greece’s leftist Syriza party has claimed its second national election victory in less than a year. The independent nationalist ANEL party has announced they will be junior coalition partners in the new government.
Official results late on Sunday showed that Greek left-wing leader Alexis Tsipras and his Syriza party were headed for a relatively comfortable victory in the country’s general election, with around 35.54 percent of the vote after half the ballots had been counted.
“We have fought against much stronger powers and Syriza has proved that it is too tough to die, because it has deep connections with the people,” Tsipras said in his victory speech.
Standing alongside Tsipras was Panos Kammenos, leader of the Independent Greeks party (ANEL), set to be the junior coalition partner as Syriza did not clear the 38 percent hurdle necessary for an automatic parliamentary majority. Syriza was projected to win 145 seats and ANEL to win 10 in the 300-seat parliament, slightly down from the 163 seats Syriza’s broader coalition managed to secure at the last polls in January.
Projections showed that the conservative New Democracy party had managed to garner only 28 percent of the vote, causing leader Evangelos Meimarakis to concede defeat less than two hours after polls had closed. Far-right extremists Golden Dawn received 7 percent, a figure that’s likely to boost their presence in parliament by two seats.
Turnout was estimated to be at around 55.8 percent of eligible voters, the lowest rate since 1950. This was a steep drop from January’s polls, when 64 percent of those registered cast a ballot.
Greek conservative leader concedes election defeat to Syriza
Vangelis Meimarakis, the leader of Greece’s conservative New Democracy party, has admitted defeat to Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras’ leftist Syriza. A party source says Syriza could form the government within three days.
“The electoral result appears to be concluding with Syriza and Mr. Tspiras in the lead,” Meimarakis told journalists on Sunday.
“I congratulate him and urge him to create the government which is needed and come to parliament,” he added.