The centre-right party of Greece’s incumbent prime minister, Kyriakos Mitsotakis, has clinched more than 40% of the vote in Sunday’s election, comfortably seeing off the challenge of the leftist main opposition Syriza party but falling short of an absolute majority.
With almost every ballot counted it was clear that New Democracy had won a landslide, posting a 20-point margin – 40.8% – over the Syriza, which was trailing at just over 20.1% – a difference rarely seen since the collapse in 1974 of military rule. Even in Crete, a socialist bastion, the rightwing party had fared unexpectedly well.
