Sunday's runoff elections for regional governors and mayors "was not a particularly good night for New Democracy," Prime Minister and New Democracy leader Kyriakos Mitsotakis said the same night.
"But I want to remind that the political results in terms of the distribution of party forces fundamentally came out last Sunday," he underlined, referring to the October 8 elections. "It is obvious there was an opposition rallying of several forces against ND candidates. In the final end, ND took 41% and not 51%, and obviously this step for many ND-supported candidates from 41% to 51% was not a particularly easy one." Mitsotakis referred to the 43% threshold candidates had to reach last Sunday in order to be voted mayor or regional governor outright instead of heading into runoffs this Sunday.
The premier also noted that the particularly high voter abstention "should concern all of us," in the runoffs, which involved a total of 6 regions and 84 cities, including the three largest (Athens, Thessaloniki, Patras).
Otherwise, he said, "the government ought to be well-grounded and to receive political feedback every moment, and to fight with its entire power to improve Greek people's daily lives." He added that his government had "supported local government at regional and municipal level substantially, and we look forward to a creative and productive collaboration with all elected regional governors and mayors."
