Mitsotakis says ND victory ‘important for Europe, not just Greece’
Prime Minister-elect Kyriakos Mitsotakis said New Democracy’s sweeping victory in Sunday’s general election had significance for Europe as well as Greece, pointing to the defeat of neo-Nazi Golden Dawn which crashed out of Parliament.
With more than 99 percent of votes counted, center-right ND had 39.8 percent of the votes, compared to 31.5 percent for Tsipras’ left-wing SYRIZA party.
Caretaker Interior Minister Antonis Roupakiotis will deliver the official election results to Parliament head Nikos Voutsis at 10 a.m. (local), who will in turn present them to President Prokopis Pavlopoulos, thus completing the electoral process.
Pavlopoulos will then meet with Mitsotakis to give him the mandate to form the next government. He will be sworn in at 1 p.m. (local), at the Presidential Mansion.
“It’s an important victory for Europe, not just for Greece. It looks like Golden Dawn has not made it past the three percent threshold which is a great victory for Greek democracy,” he told CNBC on Sunday night, after it was clear his party had won by a landslide.
“I asked for a strong mandate and the Greek people delivered. I’m very, very grateful for the result.”
Mitsotakis told reporters the new government will be announced on Monday and sworn in on Tuesday, while the first cabinet meeting will be held on Wednesday.
The new government will receive a vote of confidence from the Parliament on July 21 and will be ready to legislate immediately after, he added.
Discussions with European creditors are expected to begin immediately after that, he said.
“We’ve made our plan very clear. We want to drive a real reform agenda for the country that is ambitious, very bold and very detailed. And of course we’ve made the case that lowering the primary surplus will be to the benefit of everyone – not just the Greek economy but also our creditors,” he told journalists.
Mitsotakis is expected to decide by himself about the composition of his new cabinet. This means that he will probably not call any candidate unless he has clear picture of all the appointments.
