Athens: Greece’s conservative government has won a vote of confidence in Parliament to start its second four-year term, two weeks after Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis’ New Democracy party handily won the election.
The 300 lawmakers voted 158-142 on Saturday to approve the government’s policy statement after a low-key three-day debate. The vote went as expected, with only lawmakers from New Democracy voting for the government.
Mitsotakis’ New Democracy won the June 25 election with 40.56 per cent of the vote, compared to
17.83 per cent for the left-wing Syriza and 11.84 per cent for the socialist PASOK.
There are eight parties represented in Parliament, up from six in the 2019-23
legislature and five in the short-lived parliament elected on May 21.
That election gave no party an overall majority despite the results being broadly similar.
The June 25 election was contested under a different electoral law, which gave bonus seats to the winner.
Three of the parties in Parliament are to the right of New Democracy.
It was feared that this would make for an unruly legislature, with frequent confrontations. But the debate did not bear out those fears.
Mitsotakis himself noted, and welcomed, the lack of verbal
pyrotechnics.