Although the trend of a decisive victory for the New Democracy and a significant retreat of SYRIZA is reflected in the vast majority of constituencies in Greece, the dynamics of the parties in some areas present many interesting facts.
Crete: back to basics
One region that caused major upheavals for SYRIZA was Crete, where the party dominated in 2019 in all four prefectures. In this election, Crete seems to be returning to its roots as PASOK showed a significant increase in its percentage, where it even outperformed SYRIZA in two prefectures. On the contrary, the share of the party of Alexis Tsipras fell sharply, with losses reaching double-digit percentages.
“The greatest losses of SYRIZA voters were suffered by New Democracy and PASOK. Therefore, I think it is possible that in areas where PASOK traditionally has high percentages, such as Crete and Evia, there will be a greater tendency to return to this particular party, ”he said in an interview with K. Kostas Panagopoulos, Managing Director of Alco. “PASOK scored the highest percentage in the Rhodopes and then in Crete, which is traditionally a very strong region for the party,” said Paschalis Temekenidis, director of the Electoral Company Palmos. He usually mentions that in Lassithi SYRIZA finished third, noting that the party did better in areas where PASOK remained low.
Possible nominations
In some regions where PASOK had strong candidates or other advantages, such as in the case of Crete, the locality of Nikos Androulakis, it was able to benefit more from the deteriorating position of SYRIZA, as he spoke to K communications advisor Eftichis Vardoulakis.
Analysts say PASOK’s ballots in areas such as Evia, to which many have turned their attention because of last year’s fires, Chios, Kilkis, Florina and Arcadia, have had momentum, and this has greatly helped the party achieve good results.
“Castle” of Attica
The surprise with regard to the election results so far has been the dominance of the New Democracy in Second Attica and Piraeus. As Mr. Vardoulakis noted, the largest increase in ND was due to public benefits as it swept through Western Athens and the Second Piraeus. “It was very impressive and it was strategic strike on SYRIZA, who lost primacy in the popular strata. On the level of political well-being, the ND has done an excellent job,” he stressed, adding that in this case there seemed to be direct transitions from SYRIZA to New Democracy.
In contrast, PASOK achieved a slight increase in its interest rates compared to 2019 in the capital. “Attica is an area where the percentage of PASOK was much lower than the average. In the basin, the KKE was third,” said Mr. Panagopoulos, noting that New Democracy won in Attica, having managed to get votes not only from SYRIZA, but also from other party regions. In the constituencies of Attica, The KKE also managed to increase their percentages, in contrast to SYRIZA, whose percentages decreased.marking the biggest decline in its share compared to 2019 after Heraklion.
In the same climate, Mr. Temekenidis noted that PASOK fared much better in the region than in the two major urban centers, usually mentioning that the lowest percentage of the party was registered in Piraeus A.
Thessaloniki voted against the system
Thessaloniki, which is also second largest constituency in the countrywith over half a million voters.
As Mr. Temekenidis noted, Thessaloniki, although it has urban features voted against the system, giving the major parties a worse percentage than they achieved on average. “Think about how ND was at 35.5% in July 2019 and now it’s down to 34.2%. In the same time The Greek solution received 8.4%, while the third party, Victory, 4.7% and Freedom Sailing, 4.5%..
Two sides Nicky and Hellenic Solution managed to “steal” votes from New Democracy in cities that traditionally had very high percentages of votes, such as Kastoria. In Evros, Drama and Kilkis, the share of ND decreased slightly, while the above two parties had a strong presence. “Northern Greece is a region that has an electoral audience for parties like Niki or Hellenic Solution. It is for this reason that their power is spatially localized there,” Mr. Panagopoulos commented, recalling that the Prespa Agreement is an important part of the agenda of the parties. “Nika’s presence was depriving higher interest rates than the Greek solution,” he added.
In addition to Northern Greece and Samos, a significant increase in the party of Kyriakos Velopoulos was noted in Western Attica and Evia.
Insular part of Greece
“Throughout the island, New Democracy has succeeded and achieved a significant increase in its share,” said Mr. Panagopoulos. He explained this increase by stating that it could be logically related to stop migration flows And the closure of some migrant reception centers on the islands, which he said none of us were proud of. Especially in the Dodecanese, the party of Kyriakos Mitsotakis increased its percentage by 8.5% and received almost 50% of the vote.. On the contrary, they were one of the regions there was a very significant decline in the game of Alexis Tsipras compared to the 2019 elections.
“The Dodecanese is one of the difficult regions for SYRIZA, which is why she chose it.however, the low percentage of his party in the region cannot be blamed on a personal failure due to his candidacy,” concluded Mr. Panagopoulos.
In total, SYRIZA lost over 10 percentage points in 33 districts.
Source: Kathimerini
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