Parties assess concluding election figures

Τhe level of voter abstention hovering close to 60% in the June 9 European elections is no doubt a cause for concern for the country’s political establishment. For a measure of comparison, the abstention rate in the previous European elections (May 2019) was just shy of 40%.

And for a more complete picture, in the national elections held a year ago (2023) – where the interest of citizens is objectively more intense, given that a government is elected – the abstention rate was initially (May) 38.24%, while in the runoff (June), when everything had been decided, the abstention rate reached 53.74%

The safest feasible political conclusions by the leaderships and staffs of the parties are those that can be drawn from the absolute figures.

Tellingly, of the 9,814,685 people registered in the electoral rolls, 4,062,092 participated in the election process on Sunday. 

Ruling New Democracy’s performance compared to the previous European elections corresponds to a decrease of voters to the tune of almost 750,000. ND received 1,125,602 votes on Sunday, a considerable deviation from the 2,115,322 it garnered in last year’s national elections.

The decrease in absolute numbers for leftist main opposition SYRIZA was similar, with its voters this time amounting to 593,133 people. In last June’s national elections, the party then led by Alexis Tsipras received 930,013 votes.

The parties to the right of ND surged from a total percentage of 5.93% in the previous European elections to 18.74%. A total of 744,642 voted for these parties, compared to 726,115 in last year’s national elections. In other words, the surge corresponds to just 18,500 voters – less than than those in last year’s elections.

Socialist PASOK bolted from 7.72% to 12.79% compared to 2019, but in absolute numbers this translates into an increase of only 71,673 voters.