Greeks vote in second general election in 5 weeks, with conservative party favoured to win majority

Greeks were voting June 25 in the second general election in less than two months, with the conservative party in power for the last four years a strong favourite to win with a wide majority.

Greeks were voting June 25 in the second general election in less than two months, with the conservative party in power for the last four years a strong favourite to win with a wide majority.

The vote is overshadowed by a major shipwreck just over a week ago that left hundreds of migrants dead or missing off the coast of western Greece. But the disaster is unlikely to significantly affect the overall outcome as Greeks are expected to focus on domestic economic issues.

The 55-year-old conservative leader Kyriakos Mitsotakis is eyeing a second four-year term as prime minister after his New Democracy party won by a huge margin in May but fell short of gaining enough parliamentary seats to form a government. With a new electoral law now favoring the winning party with bonus seats, he is hoping to win enough seats to form a strong majority in the 300-member parliament.

His main rival is Alexis Tsipras, the 48-year-old head of the left-wing Syriza party who served as prime minister from 2015-2019, during some of the most turbulent years of Greece’s nearly decade-long financial crisis. Tsipras fared dismally in the May elections, coming a distant second, 20 percentage points behind New Democracy. He has been trying to rally his voter base, a task complicated by splinter parties formed by some of his former associates.

Sunday’s vote comes after hundreds of migrants died and went missing in southern Greece when an overcrowded fishing trawler heading from Libya to Italy capsized and sank, drawing criticism over how Greek authorities handled the rescue.

But the disaster, one of the worst in the Mediterranean in recent years, has done little to dent Mitsotakis’ 20-point lead in opinion polls over Tsipras, with the economy at the forefront of most voters' concerns. As Greece gradually recovers from its brutal, financial crisis, voters appear happy to return to power a prime minister who delivered economic growth and lowered unemployment.

Mitsotakis, a Harvard graduate, comes from one of Greece's most prominent political families: his late father Constantine Mitsotakis served as prime minister in the 1990s, his sister served as foreign minister and his nephew is the current mayor of Athens. The younger Mitsotakis has vowed to rebrand Greece as a pro-business and fiscally responsible euro zone member.