Elections in Greece: the conservative Kyriakos Mitsotakis puts an end to the government of Alexis Tsipras

Conservatives led by Kyriakos Mitsotakis were imposed in the parliamentary elections of this Sunday, July 7 in Greece. In this way, they put an end to the mandate of the leftist prime minister Alexis Tsipras, accused of betraying his electorate by pursuing adjustment after the crisis. According to the results on 94% of the polling stations, Mitsotakis' New Democracy Party (ND) won 39.8% of the vote, against 31.5% of the outgoing Prime Minister's group.

"A painful circle is closing today. I will not betray your hopesMitsotakis said in a broadcast on television, while Tsipras acknowledged his defeat and called his competitor to congratulate him.

New Democracy would have a majority of 158 legislators out of a total of 300 seats. The Syriza party of Tsipras would retain 86 of the 144 seats in the outgoing Parliament. The rest is divided between smaller parties since a threshold of 3% of the vote is needed to enter parliament.

A painful circle is closing today. I will not betray your hopes, "said Mitsotakis

Tsipras created hope in the 2015 elections in chaos in Greece because of the debt crisis and austerity measures imposed by its creditors and became the youngest prime minister in the history of the country. In September of the same year, he obtained his reelection.

After the bad failure of the European and local elections, between late May and early June, Tsipras, whose mandate was to end in October, called early elections, hoping to turn around the wave of discontent.

However, the 10 million Greeks called to the polls opted for alternation and ended four years of government of the young leader of the radical left. Population he did not forgive his broken promises or hard tax measures, dictated by the European Union (EU) in order to avoid the possibility of an exit from the country of the community bloc.

Mitsotakis is a Harvard graduate and member of a long-standing political family

Thus, three years after taking the reins of the conservative Mitsotakis party, considered a reformer and close to the business world, promised to "revive the economy" and "leave the crisis behind".

The election of this son of a former prime minister, descendant of a great political dynasty, means a back to the "family" in the Greek government, a tradition that Tsipras interrupted when he came to power at the age of 40 years.

B.D.N./F.F.