Change of guard in Athens, Thessaloniki
Candidates officially backed by ruling ND lose in five of six regions in local election runoff
The second round of Greece’s local and regional elections on Sunday caused upsets in the country’s two largest municipalities, Athens and Thessaloniki, while candidates officially backed by ruling New Democracy lost in five of the six remaining regions in the runoff.
PASOK-backed Haris Doukas scored a resounding victory over incumbent mayor Kostas Bakoyannis in the Greek capital. With more than 97% of the vote counted, Doukas was cruising with 55.97% against Bakoyannis, backed by ND, with 44.03%.
“Today Athens has won, the city is turning a new page. I want to thank the Athenians, I know the responsibility I am taking on. The citizens have achieved the impossible,” Doukas said.
For his part, Bakoyiannis said he is leaving “with my head held up high.”
“Both my team and I are at his (Doukas’) full disposal for an organized and serious transition. The responsibility for the result rests solely with me,” he said.
In Thessaloniki, northern Greece, independent Stelios Angeloudis was elected with a triumphant 67% against incumbent Konstantinos Zervas.
Referring to the losses of ND-backed candidates in the regional elections after a dominant first round performance, Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis conceded that it was “not a good night for New Democracy.”
The governing party only won the Peloponnese, while four of the regions (East Macedonia and Thrace, West Macedonia, Thrace, and the Northern Aegean) it lost were to party rebels. The other loss was in Thessaly, which was devastated by floods last month.
The result was undoubtedly a small but important blow to the conservative party as it managed to only win seven of the country’s 13 regions in two rounds, a far cry from the 13/13 it had set as its target.
“I want to congratulate all the regional and mayoral leaders. It is the government’s duty to work with them,” Mitsotakis said, noting that “the main conclusions were drawn on the first Sunday.”
Referring to low turnout, he said “it should give us pause for thought.”
“The government must walk with its feet firmly grounded on the earth. That is what we will continue to do with emphasis on our reform agenda. We had national elections three months ago where the strength of the parties was clearly recorded,” he stressed.
Commenting on the results, the leader of main opposition SYRIZA, Stefanos Kasselakis, said they represented the “first big crack in the Mitsotakis regime.”
