Whilst Greece’s main opposition party New Democracy won a decisive victory in the country’s national election after securing 153 seats in Parliament, the most obvious loser was the controversial far-right Golden Dawn party.
After failing to secure any seats, Golden Dawn will no longer be part of the political landscape. The people have spoken.
On the other hand, the party of controversial former finance Minister Yanis Varoufakis, the MeRA25 (DIEM25) managed to muster enough support from the voting public to secure 9 seats in Parliament.
In response to SYRIZA’s loss, Varoufakis on Sunday said that "the people punish the governments that impose memoranda.”
The MeRA25 leader congratulated New Democracy for its victory and suggested that Sunday's vote was negative and set in motion on the evening of the July 5, 2015 referendum, when Alexis Tsipras "pulled ND and the memorandum out of the waste basket, where the people had put both of them with their vote on that day." Varoufakis added that by doing so, Tsipras put ND back on a "winning track, which led to Kyriakos Mitsotakis' victory today."
"Our people have once again toppled a government that dared to pass two memoranda over a four-year period," he said.
Varoufakis continued: "Greece is finishing one chapter but starting another, which we fear will be darker than the one before," he added.
"We, at MeRA25, pledge to continue to talk about policy, both within and outside of parliament, moderately yet at the same time, in complete disobedience to all (the policies) that push our children to emigrate abroad."
Following is a breakdown of each party's percentage of the vote and seats in parliament:
- New Democracy - 39.78 % and 158 seats
- SYRIZA - 31.56 % and 86 seats
- ΚΙΝΑL - 7.97 % and 22 seats
- Communist Party of Greece (ΚΚΕ) - 5.34 % and 15 seats
- Εlliniki Lysi (Greek Solution) - 3.74 % and 10 seats
- MeRA25 - 3.47 % and 9 seats
