Greece election: Economy, migration, scandals loom large in pivotal vote

Greeks go to the polls on Sunday with the center-right government of Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis doing well in the polls against the main opposition leftist party.

He continued, "The attempt to paint him as an Orban type character is disingenuous and may well be motivated by a fear that he can keep attracting centrist voters like he did in 2019. The continuation of a traditional center right (as opposed to a populist hard right) in Europe may very well rest on his continued electoral success."

The main leftist opposition party, Syriza, is hoping to use recent scandals to its advantage and has even accused the Mitsotakis government and Greek police of collaborating with organized criminal gangs, undermining the rule of law and Western democratic values. The accusations from Syriza leader and former Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras are raising the intensity of the election cycle in a closely watched election.

Mitsotakis’s party so far has an edge over Syriza. Both major centrist parties staunchly defend Greece’s position in western institutions like NATO and the EU, while smaller, more marginal parties on the far left and right remain openly pro-Russian.