Where parties won and lost compared to the national vote

Useful political conclusions can be gleaned from the results of Sunday’s regional elections, where ruling New Democracy, leftist opposition SYRIZA, socialist PASOK, and the Communist Party (KKE) had formally endorsed candidates in 13 regions. Although a direct comparison with the results of the national elections held this summer may not offer definitive conclusions – as voter preference is very much candidate-driven – regional polls do reflect broader societal trends and the evolving dynamics of the political landscape following a very challenging summer. Let’s delve into these findings more deeply.

It is clear that Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis’ conservative party, just four months after the national elections, has reaffirmed its dominance by securing victory in 6+1 regions (including Crete) in the first round of voting on Sunday. Additionally, conservative candidates emerged as the front-runners in the remaining four out of six regions. This outcome effectively resets the political scoreboard, as it were, following the major challenges faced during the summer, as the governing party appears to have won a vote of confidence from the local communities. It is noteworthy that in many regions, New Democracy-backed candidates received a higher percentage of votes than the party did in the national elections.

This is something that Mitsotakis emphasized during his election night statement, highlighting that in several regions, such as Western Greece and Epirus, “the regional governors achieved much higher percentages than New Democracy.” He made special mention of Nikos Hardalias and Apostolos Tzitzikostas since Attica and Thessaloniki are the two largest regions in the country, both of which they won with 46% and 60%, respectively.

False dawn

In many regions, New Democracy-backed candidates received a higher percentage of votes than the party did in the national elections

The main leftist opposition had hoped that the recent election of Stefanos Kasselakis as the head of the SYRIZA party would breathe new life into the regional governor candidates endorsed by the party. They expected these candidates to benefit from a sense of renewal and increase their vote percentages, reflecting the momentum of a “new era” at the ballot box. However, this expectation not only failed to materialize, but, quite the opposite, SYRIZA appeared to suffer significant losses in most cases, often receiving single-digit percentages.

For instance, in Central Macedonia, where SYRIZA garnered 15.2% in the national election, Yiannis Mylopoulos secured only 7.15% of the vote. Another notable example is Western Greece, where SYRIZA received 21.94% in the national election, but their endorsed candidate for the regional elections, Konstantinos Karpetas, saw his support drop to 11.75%.

In general, SYRIZA, with the exception of Apostolos Gletsos, who achieved 24.88% in Central Greece, failed to surpass their national election percentages in any region, losing further ground. This development has not gone unnoticed by inner-party opposition, which is now in a stronger position to make criticism of the new party leader.

PASOK ambitions

In PASOK, there is considerable satisfaction, as they anticipate that they will have over 100 mayors elected after the second round, with many of them having a party background or being current PASOK members. Notably, PASOK has made it to the second round in the two largest municipalities in the country, Athens and Thessaloniki. Additionally, PASOK is the only opposition party with a candidate for regional governor in the second round, Dimitris Kouretas in Thessaly. According to PASOK leader Nikos Androulakis, these results suggest that PASOK can aspire to become the main opposition party, as its slight increase in support coincided with further decline for SYRIZA.

KKE gains

Undoubtedly, the Greek Communist Party is among the election winners. On one hand, KKE seems to have capitalized on SYRIZA’s decline, luring additional “left-wing votes.” On the other hand, it benefited significantly from the low voter turnout, as the party boasts a steadfast voter base that consistently participates in elections.

An illustrative case is Attica, where KKE received 9.58% in the national election, while on Sunday, the communist candidate, Yiannis Protoulis, secured 13.87% of the vote.