The 300 members of parliament were sworn in during a religious ceremony after elections on June 25 returned conservative Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis to power for a second four-year term, crushing the left-wing opposition party Syriza and making the leader opponent Alexis Tsipras announced his resignation.
Mitsotakis’ New Democracy party now has a comfortable parliamentary majority, with 158 seats compared to Syriza’s 48.
Three far-right parties and one far-left party reached the minimum 3% threshold for parliamentary seats. Only one of them has been in Parliament before.
On the right of the political spectrum, two parties of recent emergence are Spartans and the ultra-religious Niki.
The Spartans party, which won 4.7% in the elections and holds 12 parliamentary seats, is led by Vassilis Stigas and is backed by Ilias Kasidiaris, a prominent former member of the now-banned Golden Dawn party who had neo-Nazi origins and connections to multiple violent attacks. against immigrants and left-wing political activists. Kasidiaris is in prison.
Stricter regulations on electoral eligibility were introduced to prevent Kasidiaris from running as a candidate while in prison. A party he had founded behind bars was disqualified and he switched his support to Espartanos.
Niki, or Victoria, with just under 3.7% of the vote, holds 10 seats and is led by 58-year-old primary school teacher and theologian Dimitrios Natsios. He draws support from the fringes of the powerful Greek Orthodox Church and has won supporters for his opposition to the COVID-19 vaccination program.
The third right-wing fringe party is Elliniki Lysi, or Greek Solution, which returned to Parliament with 4.4% of the vote and 12 seats. It is directed by Kyriakos Velopoulos, known for his shows on local Greek television focusing on historical and religious themes and alternative therapies.
On the left, Plefsi Eleftherias, or Passage to Freedom, entered Parliament with enough votes to reach the threshold, 3.17%, gaining eight seats. It is led by Zoe Konstantopoulou, a former member of Syriza and former Speaker of Parliament.
Known for her fondness for marathon parliamentary sessions when running debates, the 46-year-old lawyer announced on election night that although her party had won just eight seats, “I’m worth 100 and the others are worth another 20 each.”
FUENTE: Associated Press
