36 Parties to Contest the Greek Elections

A total of 36 parties and party coalitions will run in the May 21 Greek elections, following the Supreme Court’s decision released on Tuesday.

The election will use a simple proportional representation system, which was voted for in 2016.

Parties that receive at least 3 percent of the vote will share 285 parliamentary seats according to their percentage of the vote.

The remaining 12 seats will be divided among state deputies elected by each party, and the last three will be filled by candidates elected by Greeks voting abroad.

Of the initial 50 parties, coalitions, and independent candidates that had submitted applications, 14 parties were rejected, including that of jailed neo-Nazi Ilias Kasidiaris, who founded “National Party – Hellenes.”

Kasidiaris, who was previously a representative and legislator for Golden Dawn, established the Hellenes party in 2020. He formed the party a few months prior to being incarcerated for directing a criminal organization.

In the same decision, the Supreme Court unanimously approved the “EAN” party, whose founder and former Supreme Court vice-president Anastasios (Tassos) Kanellopoulos initially collaborated with Kasidiaris.

Last week, the Supreme Court rejected the party “Patriotic Union” including businessman Prodromos Emfietzoglou and Independent MP Constantine Bogdanos on name and logo copyright grounds. It also banned the party “Patrida” of Afroditi Latinopoulou and the “Greek Christian Democrats-Christian-Democrat Party of Greece” of Nikos Nikolopoulos.

The parties that made the list and will run in elections include the last Parliamentary session’s participants:

• Ruling New Democracy led by Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis,
• Main opposition SYRIZA-Progressive Alliance led by Alexis Tsipras,
• PASOK- KINAL led by Nikos Androulakis,
• Communist Party of Greece led by Dimitris Koutsoumbas,
• Greek Solution led by Kyriakos Velopoulos,
• MeRA25 led by Yanis Varoufakis.

Some of the lesser-known parties the Supreme Court approved include the Greek Vision, Dare, Free Again, and Chickens.

Greek elections are likely to have a second round on July 2

Opinion polls suggest that there will be no government formed due to the proportional representation system.

If none of the parties can form a government after the May 21st election, Greece will have a second general election on July 2 using an enhanced proportional representation system that was voted on in 2020.

Under this system, the first party will receive a 20-seat bonus if it gets more than 25 percent of the vote. This bonus will increase with the party’s percentage of the vote, up to a maximum of 50 bonus seats for parties that get 40 percent.

For the first time, Greeks living abroad will be able to exercise their right to vote in their place of residence, provided they meet the criteria set out in the relevant legislation.

The 22,816 expatriates whose applications to vote abroad were approved will vote on May 20th in 99 polling stations set up in 35 countries.

Currently, there are 9,810,040 registered voters, including 438,595 young people aged 17 to 21 who are eligible to vote for the first time.