Women under 45 key to election outcome

As has already been established by numerous surveys and polls, the pool of undecided voters, which is dominated by women, mostly under the age of 45, will be key to the final outcome of the elections this Sunday and the margin between ruling New Democracy and main opposition SYRIZA.

More specifically, six out of 10 undecided voters, which amounts to some 10-12% of the electorate, are, Kathimerini understands, women, of whom seven out of 10 are under 45.

What’s more, previous surveys have also shown that half of undecided voters will decide when they get to the ballot box, thus increasing the volatility of the final correlations.

Adding further to this volatility is that a significant number of undecided voters are also apolitical.

These qualitative elements suggest that if the two parties expect to gain something extra over and beyond their already entrenched audiences, they must appeal to this audience.

It is no coincidence that Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis appeared on a non-political ANT1 show earlier this week to outline his youth program.

According to government sources, the PM will, in the final days leading up to election day, address women and young people. The same sources note that the prime minister’s insistence on talking about the “future and not the past” is intended to appeal to those who are primarily interested in their future and their lives and not in party skirmishes, which is seen as a defining characteristic of undecided voters.

On the other hand, SYRIZA leader Alexis Tsipras has recently taken to platforms such as TikTok to reach out to these audiences.

In 2019, ND won the women’s vote by 8.4 percentage points.

However, given the fluctuations over the last four years, Mitsotakis has appeared on shows with predominantly female audiences since the start of the election period.

Tellingly, the government has also sought to emphasize that the selection of the first woman president in Greece occurred under its watch and that half of ND’s state list candidates are women.

Candidates on these lists do not compete for votes in the polls but are elected based on the share of the vote the party receives. 

As for young people, they were undoubtedly in favor of SYRIZA in the last elections, gaining 33.8% of the 17-24 age group against 29.7% for ND, whose recent policies have also targeted these age groups.