In May 2023, a parliamentary election was held in Greece, at the end of the term of the New Democracy (ND) government, in office since July 2019. The election was the first since 1989 to be held with a simple proportional representation (PR) electoral system.

ND won the election, as expected by the opinion polls. However, the results came as a shock because of the twenty-point difference with major opposition SYRIZA, which lost its position as a major contender for power, thus resulting to a party system that is heading towards the predominant party category, according to Sartori’s famous categorization. ND’s victory was so impressive that they nearly achieved a single-party government through a PR electoral system, gaining 146 out of the 300 parliamentary seats. Expectedly, a new election was held one month later with a new electoral system of majoritarian tendency. ND won again and formed its second consecutive single-party government. Possible determinants of these outcomes, which will be explored in the seminar, include the large approval of ND’s economic performance and the good public image of its leader, Mitsotakis, combined with a severely biased media environment and a poor performance by the opposition, mainly SYRIZA.

Meet our speaker and chair

Yannis Tsirbas is Assistant Professor of Political Science at the Department of Political Science and Public Administration of the University of Athens. His current research interests include electoral behavior, political communication, the formation of party identification and the exploration of new teaching methods of social research methods. His most recent publications are: Introduction to Political Science (in Greek), Gutenberg, 2023 (co-editor); Party identification and party system stabilization in the post-memorandum era in Aranitou et al. (eds.) The electoral behavior of Greeks, Gutenberg, 2022 (with E. Tsatsanis-in Greek); Trust, Satisfaction and Political Engagement during Economic Crisis: Young Citizens in Southern Europe, South European Society and Politics, 26:2, 153-179, 2021 (with Mario Quaranta, João Cancela, Irene Martín); and The 2019 regional elections in Greece: Both regionalized and nationalized, Regional & Federal Studies, 32:4, 499-510, 2021.

Kevin Featherstone is the Hellenic Observatory Director and Professorial Research Fellow, LSE.

The twitter Hashtag for this event is: #LSEGreece

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The Hellenic Observatory (@HO_LSE) is internationally recognised as one of the premier research centres on contemporary Greece and Cyprus. It engages in a range of activities, including developing and supporting academic and policy-related research; organisation of conferences, seminars and workshops; academic exchange through visiting fellowships and internships; as well as teaching at the graduate level through LSE's European Institute.