The election in Greece, briefly | eKathimerini.com

On Sunday, 9,796,330 Greek residents might be eligible to vote within the elections for the European Parliament.

Greece elects 21 MEPs within the 720-member Parliament.

18,380 polling stations might be open between 7am and 7pm Voting hours could also be prolonged in particular person stations if there’s a ready line at closing time.

Anybody who turns 17 this yr – that’s, born till January 31, 2007 – has the best to vote. Greece has one of many lowest voting ages. Solely Austria, Belgium and Germany have a decrease age (16).

This election was the primary wherein folks may vote by submit. Of the 202,515 who registered to obtain a postal poll, about 177,800 had been returned. The remainder can nonetheless vote in particular person, if they want. A complete of 237 polling stations might be devoted to counting postal votes.

31 political events and coalitions are preventing for the vote of the Greeks. To be elected MEP they have to obtain at the least 3% of the vote. The edge was adopted within the Nineties to stop a minority Muslim occasion, whose founder, Sadik Achmed, overtly expressed his Turkish id, from gaining illustration in Parliament.

Usually, elections for the European Parliament are considered these the place figuring out events and voting events is less complicated. They’re additionally seen as a greater time for an impeachment vote than nationwide elections. Current opinion polls have proven that 11 events have been credited, at numerous occasions, with at the least 2% of voting intention, which supplies them hope for illustration. Evidently not all of them do.

MEPs are elected by proportional illustration.

What’s concerned

So far as home politics, nothing. The federal government won’t fall, and it’s only a yr into its four-year mandate. However an excellent or dangerous end result for any occasion, particularly the ruling one, can have long-term penalties.

The conservative New Democracy administration has set the bar to match the results of the earlier European election (33.12%). Any of the above can be trigger for impact. Something under that, particularly if New Democracy falls under 30%, might start to name into query the occasion’s latest dominance of the political scene. A recall may start, placing first place within the subsequent nationwide election, which doesn’t must be held till 2027, at stake.

The primary opposition SYRIZA, which remains to be nominally a leftist occasion, though many, particularly its detractors, now see it as engaging, and the socialist PASOK will combat for the second place, with SYRIZA gaining the higher hand in latest polls after a brief dip. within the second half of 2023.

For PASOK chief Nikos Androulakis, the stakes are easy: second place can be an undoubted success, and third place wouldn’t be a catastrophe: it should all depend upon how shut the margin is with SYRIZA. PASOK obtained 7.72% within the Euro 2019 elections and 11.84% within the June 2023 nationwide election. It captured the nation’s two largest cities, Athens and Thessaloniki, within the November 2023 native elections. Due to this fact, success or failure might be open to interpretation .

For SYRIZA political neophyte chief Stefanos Kasselakis, second place might be sufficient, though he has mentioned at occasions that he want to match the occasion’s final home end result (17, 83%) and didn’t remove a product within the twenties, by proportion. A end result like this may affirm his place because the chief of the opposition, after seeing inter-party rivals, lots of them preventing to kind the New Left occasion, and who was on the fringes of the chief long-term SYRIZA Alexis Tsipras (though the passion with which Tsipras was greeted on the occasion’s marketing campaign occasion in Athens reveals that many see him as an asset, and instead). Tsipras, the primary left-wing prime minister of Greece, from 2015-19, won’t flip 50 till July 27.

Additionally, no matter SYRIZA’s final result, Kasselakis must reply quite a lot of ongoing questions on his background.

The energy of the acute proper, and the extent to which it supplies votes towards New Democracy, is one other unknown. The hard-line populist and ultranationalist Greek Resolution might be set to at the least double its vote share from the 2019 European election (4.18%) and the 2023 nationwide election (4.44%). Its energy is concentrated in northern Greece and New Democracy officers are actively urging voters to not vote for the Greek Resolution. Imprisoning the mayor of Himare, Albania, Fredi Beleri, on the New Democracy poll was seen as an try to seize at the least a part of the nationalist vote. However hard-right voters produce other complaints towards Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis, notably his assist for same-sex marriage.

There are extra candidates for the farthest vote, even when one among them, Spartiates (Spartans), who’s represented within the nationwide Parliament, was dismissed by the Supreme Court docket for being too overtly against Ilias Kasidiaris, the previous who was imprisoned. Daybreak MP, whose occasion has been criticized as a prison organisation.

It is usually fascinating whether or not New Left, made up of SYRIZA dissidents, will ballot over 3%. The identical for the Democrats of MP Andreas Loverdos, previously of PASOK. Some take into account his occasion a “secure” place for extra centrist New Democracy voters to register their dissatisfaction with the federal government.

The problems

The voters will not be anticipated to vote on the primary European points, even when there are lots of – safety and the setting, particularly the populist backlash to the price of inexperienced transition insurance policies, to call simply two – however fully on some home, even so. considerations could also be shared in different international locations.

Inflation is the primary concern for Greeks proper now, particularly in meals and lease. Many households discover their weak restoration in danger. Within the area of Thessaly, folks additionally bear in mind the catastrophic floods of September 2023 and their ongoing results. The query is whether or not discontent, to the extent that it’s expressed, might be directed in direction of one or two events or unfold evenly, and even be expressed as extra rejection. The turnout is just not anticipated to match the 58.69% within the earlier European election; It may even fall under the 53.74% in June final yr.

No matter one thinks of Mitsotakis and his achievement in energy, he has succeeded, for good or ailing, in convincing many individuals that there isn’t a different chief for the flock. The opinion polls present that he leads a big distance from different political leaders by way of voters’ alternative for prime minister, though he’s, at occasions, overtaken by “Nobody.” Additionally, the document of the SYRIZA authorities 2015-19 and the blame, maybe an excessive amount of, positioned on PASOK for the monetary disaster and the primary two austerity packages, has undoubtedly weakened the primary opposition theme: that they’d do issues there the completely different, and higher, means than the present authorities.

That’s the reason two points that might have affected every other authorities – the February 2023 practice catastrophe and the telephone tapping scandal – have barely moved the needle in voter preferences. Worse than Androulakis, a key goal within the wiretapping affair, he’s characterised as one thing of a bore and a one-issue politician, for wanting to carry the federal government accountable.