Parliamentary elections in Greece (June 2012)

According to the results of the previous elections of May 6, 2012, none of the parties gained the required 151 seats for forming a majority in the parliament and the sole formation of the Cabinet of Ministers ^[3] .

On May 7, the President of the Hellenic Republic, Karolos Papoulias, met with the leader of the New Democracy, Antonis Samaras, and ordered to begin the process of forming a coalition government. Sometime after the publication of the results of the May 7 vote, the leader of the Coalition of Radical Left (SYRIZA) Alexis Tsipras , who proclaimed a policy of abandoning the program of European financial aid and austerity in the country, as well as the leader of the democratic left, Fotis Kouvelis, declared a categorical refusal to form a coalition government with parties new democracy and PASOK ^[4] .

Since for three days the new Cabinet of Ministers of Greece was not formed, according to the Greek Constitution , the party that received the second position in terms of the number of votes gained ( Coalition of the radical left , SYRIZA) had the right to form a government in the next three days ^[5] . However, SYRIZA did not succeed in this, so for the next three days the leader of the PASOK party, Evangelos Venizelos, was already trying to create his own Cabinet.

Finally, none of the winning parties created a government. On the morning of May 13, the party leaders gathered for a meeting with the President of Greece Karolos Papoulias, he proposed the creation of a non-political Cabinet of Ministers ^{[6] [7]} . Even the leader of SYRIZA, Alexis Tsipras, agreed to this proposal, but in the end, the politicians did not reach agreement.

Therefore, on May 15, it was officially announced the holding of new parliamentary elections in June 2012 ^[8] . It was also announced the formation of a new provisional government ^[8] , which took the oath on May 17. The new prime minister was Panayotis Pikrammenos . The powers of the government were limited, its main task was to prepare and hold elections ^[9] .

Membership Activities

Even before the elections were announced, the leader of the Democratic Left, Fotis Kouvelis, said he would not support the SYRIZ coalition either during the campaign or in forming a government coalition because of the refusal of the radical left to support a non-political cabinet composed of 4 main parties and the requirements of the “left government” ^[10] .

Before the elections, it was expected that large parties would try to form alliances with small parties. For example, New Democracy was negotiating with the Democratic Alliance ^[11] , and SYRIZA was trying to negotiate with the newly created Social Contract party, Greek green and some anti-capitalist associations like ANTARCIA ^{[12] [13]} . However, the Executive Committee of the Social Contract decided that the party would not join coalitions and remain a neutral force in order to help reach a consensus among all left parties and form a government of them led by SYRIZA ^[14] . On May 22, an important change occurred in SYRIZA. The steering committee decided to transform the “Coalition of Radical Left”, consisting of 10 allied parties, into a single party called “Syriza - United Public Front” ^[15] . The main reason for this change was the Greek electoral law, which establishes that any coalition participating in elections must divide their votes among its constituent parties to determine which of the parties in the elections was the first and who will receive an additional 50 seats ^[16] .

"New Democracy" and "Democratic Alliance" were able to agree on a merger ^{[17] [18] [19]} .

On June 7, a warrant was issued for the arrest of the representative of the Golden Dawn party, Ilias Kasidiaris, after he had attacked two women opponents from the left parties in the debates. In the heat of discussion, Ilias Casidiaris splashed water into the representative of SYRIZA Rena Doura and hit the Communist deputy Liana Kanelli in the face ^[20] .

Forecasts

According to a survey conducted on May 17, 2012, PASOK and New Democracy together will be able to win 151 seats in parliament together on repeat ^[21] .

According to estimates, on May 20, 2012, SYRIZA has the most support, 20.8% of respondents are ready to vote for it, 19.7% will vote for the New Democracy ^[22] . Meanwhile, on May 22, Alexis Tsipras said during an official visit to Paris that SYRIZA would still not negotiate for the austerity program, nor would the country withdraw from the Eurozone, noting: “There are no negotiations with hell!” ^[23] .

According to surveys conducted at the end of May and in June, the New Democracy Party bypassed SYRIZA by several percent ^{[24] [25]} .

New Democracy has announced that it will be engaged in the formation of a coalition that supports the euro ^[26] . The next day, Antonis Samaras received a mandate from the president to form a government. ^[27] . SYRIZA said it would not join the government, which consists of parties that support austerity measures. The leader of PASOK, Evangelos Venizelos, at a meeting with Samaras, proposed to reach the greatest consensus among all parties, which, he said, should be done until June 19 ^{[28] [29]} . On June 19, it became known that the Democratic Left (Greece) party was ready to join the coalition, provided the economy was moderated. New Democracy wanted to achieve a revision, so an agreement between them seemed possible ^[30] .

On June 28, members of parliament took the oath ^[31] , and the next step was a vote on the approval of the government. Voting took place on July 9, the government was supported by three parties - “New Democracy”, “PASOK” and “Democratic Left” - having together in parliament 179 votes with the necessary 151 ^[32] .

• Parliamentary elections in Greece 2012 (May)

• Resolution of the Central Committee of the CNG . Evaluation of the results of the elections on May 6 and June 17, 2012