Greece social briefing: The national election results and the rise of far-right parties

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Weekly Briefing, Vol. 63. No. 3 (GR) June 2023

 

The national election results and the rise of far-right parties

 

 

Summary

The briefing presents the results of the second round of national elections held on the 25th of June 2023. The newly formed parliament consists by eight parties in total. Three of the parties entered the parliament are placed in the far-right of the political spectrum. The increased popularity of the far-right parties, especially the party SPARTANS, which endorses ultranationalist and racist views and is closely linked with an imprisoned former leading member of the Golden Dawn party – officially characterized by court decision as a criminal organization- has alarmed the Greek society.

 

Introduction

Far-right parties are gaining ground all over Europe. Following, the results of the Greek national elections held on the 25th of June 2023, Greece became the only European country with three far-right parties in the parliament. With the news of the tragic migrant shipwreck in the waters of southern Greece, in which hundreds of people lost their lives still echoing and considering that the aftermath of the trial convicting Golden Dawn members as organizers of a criminal group still fresh in the memories of the public, the recent increase of the popularity of far-right parties is very worrying for the Greek society. Despite, the fact that the three far-right parties represent a small minority of the Greek parliament, their nationalistic, xenophobic, anti-immigration and racists views, may affect the Greek politics. In addition, the increased popularity of such views in the younger generation, with the uncontrollable spreading of far-right narrative in the social media, needs to be urgently addressed.

 

The national election results

On the 25th of June the second round of national elections took place. This time, the “reinforced proportional” representation electoral system was used instead of the “simple proportional” used in the first round (21st May) of elections. Following the first elections, the parties proved not to be ready for compromises and collaboration, thus not making the formation of a coalition government possible. On the contrary the reinforced proportional system, applied on the second round of elections, provided bonus seats to the winning party, promoting the formation of a single party government. Thus, the leader of New Democracy (ND), Kyriakos Mitsotakis, would be the Prime Minister of the country for the next four years.

Indeed, the results of the elections on the 25th of June enabled the winning party ND to win the absolute majority of the parliament and form a government. Specifically, the conservative ND acquired the 40,56% of the votes share and 158 seats in the parliament, the left-wing party SYRIZA-Progressive Alliance the 17.83% of the vote share and 48 seats in the parliament, the socialist party PASOK-KINAL 11,84% and 32 seats in the parliament, the communist party KKE 7,69% of the votes and 20 seats in the parliament, the far-right party SPARTANS 4,63% and 12 seats, the far-right party Greek Solution 4,44% of the vote and 12 seats in the parliament, the far-right party NIKI (Victory) 3.69% of the vote and 10 seats and the antisystemic party Course of Freedom acquired 3.17% of the vote and 8 seats in the parliament. It should also be mentioned that the turnout was 52,84% and the invalids 0.61% (1).

 

The rise of far-right parties

Following the elections results on the 21st of May, the win of ND in the second round of elections was expected, as well as the decrease of the popularity of the main opposition party SYRIZA. However, the entry of three far-right parties, namely Greek Solution (the leader of the party denies his party belongs to the far-right), Niki and SPARTANS, in the Greek parliament came as a surprise. Especially, the vote share of 4,63% acquired by the ultranationalist far-right party SPARTANS came as a surprise, also considering the fact that this party had not even taken part in the elections of the 21st of May. The president of the Hellenic Republic Katerina Sakelaropoulou the following day of the elections, on her meeting with the leader of ND Kyriakos Mitsotakis, to give a mandate for the formation of a government  characteristically stated, “I think the composition of the new, eight-party parliament will give rise to many challenges … which we will all live together…I wish the best for the country.” (2). It should be mentioned that in the national elections of July 2019 one far-right party have entered the parliament, which was the Greek Solution with a 3.70% vote share (3).

In order to better understand the sudden rise of the SPARTANS party, past events need to be mentioned and in particular, the rise and fall of the far-right, ultra-nationalist and neo-nazi Golden Dawn party. Golden Dawn party managed to acquire a 6,28% of the vote and became the third biggest party in the parliament in the elections of January 2015, which was during the pick of the economic crisis in Greece (4). In 2020, following a five-year trial, the party was banded, and the leaders of the party were found guilty of running a criminal organization. Ilias Kasidiaris, a member and former spokesman of Golden Dawn, was accused of running a criminal organization and sentenced to 13 years in prison. While sentenced, Kasidiaris, founded another neo-fascist party the National Party-Greeks. However, in May 2023, just before the elections, the Supreme Court banned National Party-Greeks from participating in the national elections, upholding legal amendments which disqualify parties led by politicians that are convicted of serious offenses. The court also banned two other far-right parties from the elections, namely the Patriotic Union and the Patrida parties (5).

Before the recent elections, Kasidiaris, being aware that the “National Party Greeks” was banned proceed to support the party SPARTANS. Specifically, he wrote οn Twitter “I will vote, and support with all my strength the Spartans”. It should be mentioned that Kasidiaris, despite been imprisoned, regularly broadcasts from jail in his social media channels and attracts thousands of views. Thus, the support by Kasidiaris gave recognition to the SPARTANS party, which despite been founded on 2017, it was not well known to the public. The contribution of Kasidiaris to the winning of 12 seats in the parliament by the SPARTANS was also evident by the statement of the leader of the party Vasilis Stigkas following the election results. Specifically, Stigkas stated: “The support of Ilias Kasidiaris was the fuel that gave us the impetus to achieve today’s election result”. The spokesman of the party Charalambos Katsivardas added “Ilias Kasidiaris was excluded from the elections in an unconstitutional manner. However, he became a regulator and catalyst of the elections”, highlighting its support towards the convicted former member of the Golden Dawn criminal organization (6).

It is worth noting that the vote percentage for the ultra-nationalist far-right party is higher in the age groups 17-24 and 25-34 years old. In particular, according to exit polls, the SPARTANS in the age group 17-24 got 7,8% of the vote share and in the age group 25-34 8,2%. In comparison, in the age group 45-54 years old the SPARTANS acquired the 4,3% of the vote share, and in the age groups 55-64 and 65+ the 3% and 1,3% of the vote share respectively. Moreover, the SPARTANS were mainly boosted by voters of minor parties, approximately 2 in 10 of their voters had voted a minor party in the May elections, and citizens who had abstained or voted blank in the same elections.  In addition, 1 out of 10 of their voters originated from the far-right parties Niki, the Greek Solution or the right-wing ND, while a much higher vote share percentage was recorded by men voters (6,5% men and 2,6% women) (7).

The appeal of the SPARTANS and in general the ultra-nationalist ideology to the younger generation is also evident by the social media. Specifically, searching on social media the names “Kasidiaris” or “Spartans” results approximately 20,000 posts on Instagram. Also related videos on TikTok attract close to 60 million views. Furthermore, with the central slogan “Prison to the Truth” on social media, an online promotion of the idea that Kasidiaris is imprisoned due to systematic attempt to political silence him has been conducted. Most concerned videos have over 20k views and hundreds of supporting comments, along with posts of nationalistic and racist content (8). From the latter, it is evident that the younger generation interacting on social media platforms and especially focusing on the far-right ideology have been bombarded by racist and extreme nationalist content, which in return added to the vote share percentages of the far-right parties, especially the SPARTANS, in the younger age groups.

 

Conclusion

Following the trial, conviction and banning of Golden Dawn and the elections of 2019 results it was argued that far-right ideology was diminished in Greece. However, the results of the recent elections show that far-right is still active and spreading in the Greek society. The three-far right parties in the parliament indicate that, although fragmented, the far-right agenda will influence the Greek politics. More research needs to be contacted on the reasons of the increasing popularity of the ultra-nationalists and racist ideology in the Greek society in order to better understand and tackle the phenomenon.

 

 

References