Exploratory mandates to go to top three parties

President Katerina Sakellaropoulou will activate the procedures to give exploratory mandates to the leaders of the first three parliamentary parties in order to determine whether a government that enjoys the confidence of the Parliament can emerge.

According to Article 37 of the Constitution, if the first party does not have “an absolute majority of seats” from the elections, the president will give the leader of the party with the most votes (in this case Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis) an exploratory mandate to ascertain the possibility of forming a government. 

If this possibility is not ascertained, the exploratory mandate goes to the leader of the second party (SYRIZA’s Alexis Tsipras).

If this is not successful, it will in turn be passed on to the leader of the third party (PASOK’s Nikos Androulakis). 

Each of these mandates is valid for three days.

And, if the exploratory mandates are not successful, and if the impossibility of forming a government that has the confidence of the Parliament is confirmed, the president shall seek the formation of a government by all the parties in Parliament for the purpose of holding elections.

Given the correlations formed by Sunday’s result, it is considered likely that the maximum period of nine days of the three exploratory talks will not be exhausted. 

This means that Sakellaropoulou’s consultations with all parties for some kind of government that either has the confidence of the Parliament, or to undertake the conducting of the second elections, will be launched with speed.

Immediately afterward, the president will initiate the process of forming a caretaker government “to hold elections, and dissolve the Parliament.”