Local – Regional Elections Change Political Map of Greece

Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis. Photo source: @kmitsotakis X social media.

Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis said a lesson was to be learned after the results of a second round of elections for local and regional government on Sunday.

Several candidates supported by Mitsotakis’ conservative New Democracy (ND) government, including the current mayors of Greece’s two largest cities: Kostas Bakoyannis in Athens and Konstantinos Zervas in Thessaloniki lost to center-leftist candidates on Sunday.

Regional governor candidates in runoff elections in six out of Greece’s 13 regions also lost making it a major setback for the government, which was expecting to win majority votes in all 13 regions after ND’s landslide victory in June.

Source: Ministry of Internal Affairs.

In a historic high, 64.84 percent of Greeks chose not to vote in Sunday’s runoff polls for regional governors and 59.29 percent for mayors. Voter abstention dropped by 11.5 percent over last week’s local elections.

Athens, Thessaloniki get new mayors

In Athens, center-leftist (PASOK) Haris Doukas will step in as the Greek capital’s new mayor on January 1, 2024 replacing Bakoyannis, who is also Mitsotakis’ nephew.

“Today Athens won, the city is turning over a new page. I want to thank all the Athenians from the bottom of my heart for the huge honor and I am very well aware of the very big responsibility I am taking on,” said Doukas. In the second round, Doukas also had the support of left-wing Syriza.

Next Athens Mayor Haris Doukas. Photo source: @harisdoukas X social media.

Bakoyannis held a strong lead in the first round of local polls on October 10 with 41.35 percent of the vote over Doukas’ 14.19 percent. In Sunday’s runoff however, Doukas garnered 55.96 percent. It should be noted however that only one-fourth of Athens residents turned up to vote.

In Thessaloniki, Stelios Angeloudis, also backed by PASOK but running independently, defeated ND candidate Zervas with 67.33 percent of the vote.

New governors

In flood-hit Thessaly, also running independently Dimitris Kouretas, backed by PASOK and Syriza, was elected with 59.55 percent of the vote pushing ND candidate and current governor Kostas Agorastos out of the game.

With regard to the other five Greek regions in the runoff elections, the new governors are: Christodoulos Topsidis, Eastern Macedonia – Thrace; Konstantinos Moutzouris, North Aegean; Georgios Amanatidis, Western Macedonia; Ioannis Trepeklis, Ionian Islands; and Dimitrios Ptochos, Peloponnese.

In last week’s first round, ND candidates Nikos Hardalias won in the Region of Attica and Apostolos Tzitzikostas in the Region of Central Macedonia.