Greece will hold a legislative election on May 21 that promises to be the closest in more than a decade, with three main parties competing for seats in the 300-member parliament.
Outgoing prime minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis of conservative New Democracy, former premier Alexis Tsipras of leftist Syriza and ex-European lawmaker Nikos Androulakis of the Socialists are aiming to lead their parties to victory.
During the last election in 2019, the conservative New Democracy unseated the leftist Syriza.
But polls suggest that no party will emerge from this ballot with a majority of seats in parliament, meaning at least two of the parties will need to cooperate to form a government to avoid a fresh election by July.
Here is a look at the leaders of the main three parties.
– The scion –
Mitsotakis, 55, is seeking a second four-year term as prime minister on the strength of his record of economic growth, fiscal management and a robust foreign policy that includes a pair of key alliance deals with the US and France.
“We have much more experience now… to boldly move forward in order to carry out the changes that will make Greece a modern European country,” he said in a televised interview earlier in May.
A Harvard graduate and former McKinsey consultant, Mitsotakis has warned that the country needs a “strong hand at the helm” amid the war in Ukraine and other challenges, and that failure to re-elect his conservative New Democracy party will undermine Greece’s economic rebound after a near-decade debt crisis.
A scion of a Greek political dynasty dating to the late 19th century, Mitsotakis has long struggled to shake off his elitist image.
His father Constantine Mitsotakis was also prime minister three decades ago. His sister is former minister Dora Bakoyannis, the first woman mayor of Athens. The current Athens Mayor, Costas Bakoyannis, is her son and Mitsotakis’ nephew.
Leader of the conservative New Democracy party since 2016, Mitsotakis is married to entrepreneur Mareva Grabowski, co-founder of the Zeus+Dione luxury clothing brand. They have three children.
– The ex-radical –
Tsipras, who was prime minister from 2015 to 2019 during some of Greece’s rockiest crisis years, is asking voters for a second chance to show what his labour-friendly leftist Syriza party can truly do without the austerity shackles of EU-IMF supervision.
“Enough is enough,” the 48-year-old leftist told a rally in Larissa, central Greece last week.
“Enough with profiteering, inequality, nepotism, indifference, arrogance, injustice,” he said, accusing Mitsotakis of showering billions of euros on political and family allies.
A sovereign debt crisis that began in 2009 plunged Greece into financial turmoil, with the country requiring three bailouts from the EU and the International Monetary Fund, in return for severe austerity measures that upended the economy and impoverished many.
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