Balkans | Favorite politicians will compete in the June 25 elections in Greece for the support of the people

As Greece goes to the polls for the second time in a month, the three prominent leaders in the electoral race are asking for support from voters with their various profiles that they paint..

Kyriakos Mitsotakis, leader of the center-right New Democracy party, is asking voters for 4 more years to complete the government program under his premiership between July 2019 and May 2023.

Alexis Tsipras, leader of the Radical Left Alliance (SYRIZA), who became prime minister during the economic crisis, aims to implement the economic program that he could not implement due to the austerity policies that he had to implement as a result of the memorandums. .

Nikos Androuulakis, leader of the centre-left PASOK party, is seeking voter support to regain power lost in recent years by his party, which has been part of the country’s government and to become the main opposition once again.

New Democracy Leader Kyriakos Mitsotakis

Kyriakos Mitsotakis, who has led New Democracy since January 2016, comes from an established family that has had a say in Greek politics for many years.

Mitsotakis, son of former Prime Minister Konstantinos Mitsotakis and grandson of former MP Kyriakos Mitsotakis of the same name, is also the brother of former Foreign Minister Dora Bakoyannis, one of the important figures in Greek politics. Mitsotakis’ nephew, Bakoyannis’ son, Kostas Bakoyannis, is the mayor of Athens.

Born in 1968 into a family intertwined with politics, Mikotakis studied at Harvard and Stanford universities. After his undergraduate studies in social sciences, he won an award for his graduate thesis in foreign policy of the United States of America in Greece, at Stanford University, from the European Union and Harvard University, and he holds a master’s degree in business administration.

Mitsotakis, who had 3 children from his marriage to his wife of Polish descent, Mareva Grabowski, speaks English, French and German, and worked in the banking sector as an economic analyst, advisor to clients and investment specialist before entering politics.

Mitsotakis, winner of the Global Leader of Tomorrow Award from the World Economic Forum in 2003, is also the author of Foreign Policy Challenges.

political history

Mitsotakis, who entered the Greek parliament for the first time in March 2004 and was elected to the parliament in the September 2007 elections, became a minister for the first time in 2013.

After assuming the leadership seat of New Democracy in 2016, Mitsotakis demonstrated its first success as the first party in the European Parliament elections in May 2019.

Mikotakis, who single-handedly brought his party to power with 39.85 percent of the vote in the July 2019 general elections, faced many problems during his 4-year term.

The sudden influx of emigration from Mirich in March 2020, the covid-19 pandemic, the wildfires, the flood disaster, the escalation of tensions with Turkey, the wiretapping scandal that followed the phones of many important names from the chief of staff to the foreign minister after the war in Ukraine was the energy crisis The rapidly increasing cost of living is among the problems the Mitsotakis government has faced.

Despite all these problems, Mitsotakis carried his party to first place with 40.79 percent of the vote in the general election on May 21, but he could not reach the number of deputies of 151 that would allow him to come to power on his own.

Mitsotakis, who preferred to go to the ballot box for the second time and pursue the path of power alone, handed over the premiership on May 25 to Yannis Sarmas, prime minister of the interim government that will lead the country to general elections. On June 25th.

Syriza leader Alexis Tsipras

Alexis Tsipras, who has been leading the Alliance of the Radical Left (SYRIZA) since 2008, met politics during her student years.

Born in 1974, Tsipras was elected to parliament for the first time in the October 2009 elections.

Bringing his party into the main opposition in the May 2012 general election, Tsipras became prime minister in the government he formed with the right-wing Independent Greeks party, by placing Syriza first in the January 2015 electoral race.

Tsipras accused the established parties that had been in power in the country for years, such as New Democracy and PASOK, of implementing anti-people policies, until he took over as prime minister during the huge economic crisis that Greece met in 2009.

After becoming prime minister, Tsipras negotiated with the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the European Union (EU) over the third memorandum and put the decision to a referendum in July 2015.

Despite 61 percent of the votes against the warrant in the referendum, Tsipras signed the third warrant on July 13.

After the signing, divisions began within the party, and Syriza voters were also disappointed.

Tsipras became prime minister again in September 2015, leading the country to snap elections to gain popular approval.

In August 2018, the country exited the memorandum process, but Tsipras became the prime minister who implemented austerity policies that contradict all his political rhetoric, according to the memorandum signed with the European Union and the International Monetary Fund.

Alexis Tsipras handed over the prime minister’s seat to Mitsotakis in the July 2019 general elections.

The first prime minister to be sworn in

Tsipras, who studied civil engineering at the Technical University of Athens, completed a master’s degree from the same university.

Tsipras began participating in political formations during his high school years. He took his first step into politics in 1988 in the youth branch of the Communist Party of Greece.

Alexis Tsipras participated in the student group that met with the Mitsotakis government during the student protests of 1990-1991.

Tsipras, who went to Italy to take action against the G8 summit in 2001 and did not choose business and engineering by putting politics at the center of his life, has two children from his relationship with his life partner Peristera Paziana, with whom he signed a contract. Partnership agreement in lieu of marriage.

Tsipras, who declared himself an atheist, became the first prime minister of Greece to take a political oath instead of swearing on the Bible.

Tsipras has often been the target of criticism for not being able to speak English well, unlike Mitsotakis, who speaks English fluently on all international platforms.

PASOK leader Androuulakis

PASOK leader Nikos Androuulakis, who, like Tsipras, graduated from civil engineering and completed a master’s degree in the same field, represented Greece in the European Parliament in the period 2014-2023.

Androulakis, 44, who has been involved in commercial life as a civil engineer, took his first step into politics in 2001 at the youth branch of PASOK.

Andrulakis became the leader of PASOK after the death of PASOK leader Fofi Yenimata in 2021.

Androulakis, who resigned from the European Parliament before the general elections in May 2023, entered the Hellenic Parliament in the elections on May 21.

Nikos Androuulakis has become one of the leading names in the wiretapping scandal in Greece.

As a result of the investigation by the European Parliament, it was revealed that Andrulakis, who was found to have sent a link to his mobile phone to install spyware, was not followed by the spyware because he did not enter the link, but by the Greek Intelligence Agency (EYP).

Andrououlakis, who raised the vote share of PASOK, one of the most radical parties in Greece, from 8.10 percent in 2019 to 11.46 percent in the general elections in May, defeated PASOK against the main opposition party Syriza, whose vote rate dropped to 20.07 percent. . It rolled up its sleeves to make it the main opposition party again.

AA