A confirmation of political dominance
Following a long pre-election period that ended with two battles at the polls just three months ago, it comes as no surprise that Sunday’s local and regional elections did not bring about any spectacular changes to the overall political landscape in Greece. The conclusions that can be drawn from an analysis of Sunday’s results are almost identical to those from the parliamentary election in June. Regardless, over the past two decades at least, local elections in this country have their own momentum and are not always in line with central political positions. This is why the way voters reward or punish their local leaders is sometimes much more emphatic than the popularity of the party that supports them in that district would indicate.
This note aside, however, certain key conclusions have clearly emerged from Sunday’s electoral battle: Ruling New Democracy continues to dominate the political competition, with its victory in local government being even bigger than at the central level. This domination was confirmed in this year’s elections, where the biggest challenges seemed to come not from rival parties, but from candidates from New Democracy’s own camp who became independent.
Low turnout ought to alarm everyone in the government and the opposition, even though it was expected, to a degree at least
The main opposition SYRIZA party, whose presence was lackluster in local government anyway, put on a very poor performance on Sunday. Its new leadership is obviously not to blame for the results. On the other hand, the choice of a new leader did not boost the party or its candidates in the way that it usually would and was expected. Combined, moreover, with a series of surveys over the past weeks that show SYRIZA caught in a popularity rut, it seems that the honeymoon effect of Stefanos Kasselakis’ election to the party’s leadership was extremely short-lived.
Socialist PASOK, in contrast, is among the winners of Sunday’s race, for two reasons mainly. First because it became the second most influential party in regional government, having also strengthened its percentage in the bigger cities, which had been its Achilles’ heel in the previous contest. And second, because it has become the focus of the anti-government vote for two very important contests in next Sunday’s runoff, for the Municipality of Athens and for the regional authority of flood-hit Thessaly. This has further enabled it to score points over its rivals in the opposition camp.
The Greek Communist Party (KKE) also achieved a significant rise in popularity and is among the election’s winners, partly because of the low voter turnout. This low turnout ought to alarm everyone in the government and the opposition, even though it was expected, to a degree at least, after such a lengthy period of political tensions. If something dramatic doesn’t happen in the meantime, we should expect an even lower turnout in the 2024 elections for European Parliament.
In short, New Democracy continues to lead the political race, SYRIZA made a poor showing and PASOK is among the winners.
Eftychis Vardoulakis is a political and communication consultant.
