Greeks headed to the polls on Sunday to elect a premier for the next four years with voters struggling with a cost-of-living crisis.
Current Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis and his center-right New Democracy party and rival leftist Syriza party leader and former premier Alexis Tsipras, whose time in office saw him stand up to those measures ordered by Greece’s creditors until he backed down and secured another bailout, are the main contenders. A change in the electoral system, though, makes a rerun of the vote in the summer highly likely.
As ever, the main political leaders are trying to convince voters that each of them has the best plan to transport Greece to the future and shed its legacy.
“Today we’re voting for our future, for better wages, for more and better jobs,” Mitsotakis said after voting in the northern Athens suburb of Kifisia.
The rebound in the Greek economy has set the nation on track to recover its investment-grade status after 13 years. Gross domestic product is just about where it was when Greece defaulted on its debt in 2010 and it sank by more than a fifth. Unemployment has more than halved from its peak of 28%. Controls to stop the exodus of euros were lifted more than three years ago. Greek stocks and bonds have soared.
“Change is in the hands of our people,” Tsipras said after casting his ballot in central Athens.
Polling stations close at 7 p.m. local time with a safe estimation based on actual votes expected around one and a half hours later.
