Heads to the polls again

Greece heads to the polls again on June 25

No party achieved an overall majority in the election earlier this month.

BY NEKTARIA STAMOULI

Greece’s parliament was dissolved Monday, less than 24 hours after convening, paving the way for a new election on June 25.

Under a decree signed by Greek President Katerina Sakellaropoulou, caretaker Prime Minister Ioannis Sarmas and Cabinet ministers, the next parliament will convene on July 3.

No party achieved an overall majority in the national election on May 21, which was held under a simple proportional representation system; there was no attempt to form a coalition.

The conservative New Democracy party achieved a landslide victory, getting 40.79 percent of the vote — but that was not enough to form a single-party government.

The next election will be contested under a different system that grants the winning party up to 50 bonus parliamentary seats; that gives the conservative New Democracy an edge to form a majority government.

However, the number of parties that make it into parliament will be crucial to determining the makeup of the eventual majority. The more parties pass the 3 percent threshold needed to win seats in parliament, the higher the share of the vote needed for an outright majority.

On May 21, two parties barely missed the cutoff, with 2.9 percent support; if they pass that baseline on June 25, it could raise the threshold for a party to achieve an overall majority to about 39 percent.

The conservatives are appealing to voters not to take the result for granted and head back to polls, while opposition leaders called on them to snip New Democracy’s lead and avoid the prospect of a dominant majority government with no significant opposition.