New Delhi: Members of the Greek parliament, elected in the June 25 general elections, were sworn in on Monday in a festive opening session in the presence of Hellenic Republic President Katerina Sakellaropoulou.
300 members of parliament are inducted during a religious ceremony after conservative Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis was returned to power for a second four-year term with a landslide victory in the June 25 election that crushed left-wing opposition Syria and propelled opposition leader Alexis Tsipras to power. announce his resignation.
Mitsotakis’s New Democracy Party (ND) now has a comfortable parliamentary majority with 158 seats compared to SYRIZA’s 48.
Three far-right parties and one party representing the far-left reached the 3% threshold for parliamentary seats.
The biggest surprise of the Greek elections was the performance of a new far-right formation called the Spartans, which won 4.64 percent of the vote and 12 seats in the new parliament.
The group was lifted out of relative obscurity following the endorsement of Ilias Kassidiaris, head of the far-right party of the now-banned Golden Dawn. His own party was barred from the elections and he supported the Spartans from prison.
Spartans is one of three fringe parties of the right and one of the left that gained parliamentary representation following Sunday’s elections.
Greek Solution, a nationalist, pro-Russia party formed by former journalist and TV salesman Kyriakos Velopoulos, won 4.47 percent of the vote and will be represented in parliament with 12 MPs.
The Niki or Victory Party, which emphasizes conservative Christian traditions, got 3.71 percent and 10 MPs.
On the left of the political spectrum, is the newcomer Plefsi Eleftherios, or Passage to Freedom, which got 3.17 percent and 8 MPs. Its leader Zoe Constantopoulou, a left-wing firebrand, was parliament speaker under SYRIZA.
Greek parliament will elect the president and vote for the government
The new parliament will reconvene on Tuesday to elect a speaker and presidium, based on proposals from parliamentary groups and parliamentary rules. The ruling ND party has proposed the previous parliament speaker, Konstantinos Tassoulas.
A three-day debate on the policy statement of the new government of Kyriakos Mitsotakis will begin on Thursday, 6 July. It will end with a vote on Saturday, 8 July, in which the new government will seek a vote of confidence from Parliament.
Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis will open the debate, followed by members of the new government, chairmen of parliamentary groups, parliamentary spokespeople and MPs from all parties.
The debate shall culminate in a roll-call vote held at midnight on the third day of the debate, and shall be conducted with an absolute majority of MPs present, which shall not, however, be less than two-fifths (120 MPs) of the plenum.
