Greece’s leading political candidates are accelerating the process to call a new election — the second in about a month — paving the way for Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis to get an additional four-year term.
Greece’s former prime minister and the head of the leftist Syriza opposition party, Alexis Tsipras, turned down on Tuesday a three-day mandate to try to form a coalition. Mitsotakis, who, heads the center-right New Democracy, declined to use the full mandate on Monday.
Mitsotakis pummeled the opposition in Sunday’s general election, getting more than 40% of the vote, but he fell short of the threshold to be able to immediately form a government on his own. Because the next ballot, which could come as soon as June 25, would be held under different rules, Mitsotakis will likely pass that threshold easily.
