Independent Greeks to dicuss participation in elections on Sunday
After a devastating performance in recent polls for European Parliament and regional and local government, the Independent Greeks (ANEL) party has decided to defer a decision on whether it will run in next month's general elections until a meeting on Sunday of its national council.
The decision to take some more time to analyze the results of the recent polls and to put off the discussion was reached on Monday during a meeting of ANEL's parliamentary group and executive committee.
After seeing its popularity rise on an anti-austerity, anti-immigration agenda since the start of the crisis, the small far-right nationalist party founded by former defense minister Panos Kammenos ruled in a coalition with governing SYRIZA from 2015 until the start of this year, when the partnership collapsed over the North Macedonia name deal.
In last week's European elections, it got less than 1 percent of the vote, with just 45,149 ballots cast in its favor, prompting an announcement that it may not run in snap elections called by ruling SYRIZA, which also suffered a resounding defeat to opposition New Democracy in all three polls.
