The center-right "New Democracy" is the big winner of the early parliamentary elections in Greece that were held yesterday. The party will form an independent government and rule for the next 4 years.

Despite a lower voter turnout of almost 53 percent – down about 8 points from the regular election in May – the centre-right "New Democracy" won 158 seats in the 300-seat parliament. Which is well above the required minimum of 151 MPs to have an independent government. In the elections yesterday, it got just over 40 percent. That is, almost the same result as in May. With the difference that in this election there was again a bonus of up to 50 additional seats for the first party.

Its leader Kyriakos Mitsotakis stated that Greece is opening a new historical chapter in its history:

"These elections closed the traumatic cycle of lies and toxicity that held the country back and divided society, thus ushering in the era of true progress. I thank the Greek people for their trust. I have never promised miracles. But I assure you that I will remain faithful to my national duty with a plan, dedication and above all with hard work, not tolerating any arrogance or arrogant behavior".

The big loser is the radical left SYRIZA. It collected nearly 18 percent of the votes or 47 seats in the parliament. Its leader, Alexis Tsipras, admitted this:

"We suffered a serious electoral defeat. For SYRIZA, a historic cycle has ended. We will start the processes to make the right decisions. First, I myself, as a leader, will submit to the judgment of the party members."

The center-left PASOK also enters the parliament in Athens with 32 deputies, as well as the Communist Party - with 20.

The Greek parliament will have eight parties in it. The neo-Nazi Spartiates (Spartans) came as a surprise, becoming the fifth party with nearly 5 percent of the vote and 13 seats. MPs will also have 3 additional small parties and the former finance minister of SYRIZA from the time of the crisis - Yanis Varoufakis and his formation MeRA25 - remained below the 3 percent line.

Today at 1:00 p.m., the leader of "New Democracy" Kyriakos Mitsotakis will arrive at the presidential palace in Athens to take the oath and the ceremony of handing over power from the official cabinet will take place.

The swearing-in of the new ministers, deputy ministers and assistant ministers is expected on Tuesday, and the first meeting of the cabinet will take place on Wednesday. In the evening, Mitsotakis will leave for Brussels to participate in the summit of the 27 European leaders.

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