Acting Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis’ right-wing party won a major victory in Greece’s legislative elections on Sunday, but a repeat election will be needed to guarantee a stable government, AFP reported, citing Agerpres. The Greek president will give him a three-day mandate on Monday to hold talks with other parties to try to form a coalition, Reuters reported.

New Democracy (ND), led by the acting prime minister, won 40.8% of the vote, according to partial results in 85% of polling stations.

Former prime minister Alexis Tsipras, a leftist, won just 20% of the vote, ahead of the socialist Pasok-Kinal party, which won 11.6%.

The result was a stunning promotion for Mitsotakis, whose administration has been forced to contend with a wiretapping scandal, the COVID pandemic, a cost-of-living crisis and a deadly train crash in February that sparked public outrage.

Describing his victory as a “political earthquake”, Kyriakos Mitsotakis, who has been in office since 2019, opened the way for re-election, which could be held in late June or early July and would allow him, if he confirms this performance, to obtain an absolute majority.

Thanks to a different electoral system, the winning party will receive a “bonus” of up to 50 seats.

But under the new voting system, he failed to win a single one, securing 146 seats in the 300-member parliament, falling short of the 151-seat threshold for sole rule.

Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis will receive a formal mandate on Monday to try to form a coalition government after failing to win an absolute majority in Sunday’s election, Reuters reported.

Greek President Katerina Sakellaropoulou is expected to invite Mitsotakis on Monday and give him a three-day mandate to hold talks with other parties to try to form a coalition.

If the negotiations fail, the second and third parties – “Syriza”, followed by the socialist party PASOK – will receive a three-day mandate.

If no party succeeds in forming a coalition, Sakellaropoulou will appoint an interim government that will hold a new national vote in about a month.

On Sunday, Mitsotakis said the people had given him a mandate for a “strong and autonomous government”, suggesting he was unlikely to ally with any other party.

And during his election campaign, Kyriakos Mitsotakis ruled out the possibility of forming a coalition in a country whose political culture is not based on compromises.

For his part, Alexis Tsipras, the former Prime Minister of the radical left Syriza, aware of his defeat, asked his supporters to hold a “decisive second election battle”.