Greek anti-systemic parties vote regularly against EU law, survey shows

Greek parties that are described as populist, anti-liberal and Eurosceptic regularly vote against EU laws brought to Parliament for approval, according to policy paper published by the Athens-based Center for Liberal Studies (KEFiM) on Thursday.

In an analysis reviewing the voting patterns of 15 Greek parties that have been in opposition from 2004 to 2023, the largest legislative consensus on EU bills was shown by the now-defunct liberal party Potami, which voted for 87% of the EU laws, followed by center-left PASOK with 75.9%, center-right (and now ruling) New Democracy (ND) with 74.4% and nationalist Popular Orthodox Rally (LAOS) with 66.7%

Τhe smaller legislative consensus on EU bills was shown by the Communist Party of Greece (KKE) with 2%, followed by the now-defunct neo-Nazi Golden Dawn with 6%, MeRA25 with 10.5% and nationalist Greek Solution with 11.1%.

Comparing how parties voted on EU bills compared with all other, non-EU-related legislation, Potami scored 14 percentage points higher, followed by LAOS, PASOK, ND and the Union of Centrists. Conversely, the now-defunct leftist DIMAR was 19 percentage points lower with far-right Spartiates (Spartans), Plefsi Eleftherias and ANEL following behind.

“This opposition strategy is more prevalent in parliamentary systems where there are limitations on the opposition’s ability to influence the legislative process, as happens in Greece where the legislative power is almost completely controlled by the executive,” KEFiM says.