Election campaign for elections characterized by strengths and weaknesses. Contrary to what many expected, there were debates, mostly on television and radio, on public policy issues such as development. This positive element revealed a weakness: some politicians are out of touch with current economic life, and they also lack basic knowledge and information. All modern professions require constant training of those who practice them. In the future, this should also apply to professional politicians.

In addition, verbal personal attacks and rage against opponents were limited in the new social media environment. On the other hand, however, the parties that led the mobilization against environmentally damaging industrial and tourist investments caused serious damage to the environment: city centers were filled with placards and banners.

Unlike most elections in the previous decade, European Union (EU) he was not at the center of the electoral controversy. This was understandable since the financial crisis had passed. At the same time, the intensity of Euroscepticism, which had many exponents and a “hard” form in the previous elections, has decreased. However, on the eve of the elections, issues related to Greece and the EU were not openly discussed: deep socio-economic inequality, unpredictable large migration flows, demographic decline.

In connection with the really unacceptable surveillance of some politicians and journalists, questions have been raised about the quality of democracy. However, speculations about democracy have turned into pointless arguments, as some analysts have easily equated the current Greek democracy with a totalitarian regime, and the government with a junta. Similar, but not so rabid exaggerations were written in the period 2015-2019. The exaggerations are unconvincing. The ruling party at that time also did not suffer much, since, despite the defeat in the elections, its electoral result in 2019 reached 32%. The current ruling party, which greatly increased its electoral influence in today’s elections, has not passed the test either.

The main problem of today’s democracy is not that it has mutated into another state, but that it is not interesting. Although voter lists have not been cleared and therefore the relative estimate is unreliable, a high abstention rate (about 40%) can be seen in today’s elections. In these elections, the electoral fall of the official opposition was a surprise. In hindsight, it seems that it cost the opposition that they repeated the same thing a decade ago and faced controversy regarding their target groups. We were also surprised by the low performance of the extreme right parties, with the exception of the party of K. Velopoulos. How is this explained? Perhaps the Kasidiaris party’s ban on participation in the elections worked, perhaps the far right was harmed by the emergence of several parties of its own just a few months before today’s elections. The latter was a favorable development for democracy.

* Mr. Dimitris A. Sotiropoulos is Professor of Political Science at the Faculty of Political Science and Public Administration of the National and Kapodistrian University of Athens and Principal Research Fellow at ELIAMEP.