Surprise performance for two minor parties
The performance of two parties in particular that did not hold seats in the previous parliament was one of the major surprises of Sunday’s general election, despite narrowly missing the 3 percent threshold to enter parliament.
The ultra-conservative Niki and left-wing Course of Freedom parties came 6th and 7th, respectively, outperforming Yanis Varoufakis’ MeRA25, which lost all its MPs in the election.
Niki (“Victory”), a new party led by a religion teacher, Dimitris Natsios, took 2.92% of the vote. Established in 2029, its values are, according to its constitution, national freedom and independence of the nation and Greek Orthodoxy. The party appealed to voters to the right of New Democracy, especially after the decision of the Supreme Court to exclude the party of jailed former Golden Dawn MP Ilias Kasidiaris from the election.
Course of Freedom, established by former SYRIZA MP and parliamentary speaker Zoe Konstantopoulou in 2016, took a 2.89% share of the vote. Among its aims are the cancellation of the country’s national debt, the abolition of the Presa naming agreement on North Macedonia’s name, expanding Greece’s territorial waters to 10km, claiming German war-time loans and reparations and opposition to mandatory vaccination.
“Whatever the final result is, what we have achieved is only the beginning,” Konstantopoulou said on Sunday night, saying that her party would “continue the effort” in the next election.
