Greece’s leading political candidates are accelerating the process to call a new election — the second in about a month — paving the way for Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis to get an additional four-year term.
Greece’s former prime minister and the head of the leftist Syriza opposition party, Alexis Tsipras, turned down on Tuesday a three-day mandate to try to form a coalition. Mitsotakis, who, heads the center-right New Democracy, declined to use the full mandate on Monday.
Mitsotakis pummeled the opposition in Sunday’s general election, getting more than 40% of the vote, but he fell short of the threshold to be able to immediately form a government on his own. Because the next ballot, which could come as soon as June 25, would be held under different rules, Mitsotakis will likely pass that threshold easily.
“I won’t take on the mandate as the conditions don’t exist to be able to form a government,” Tsipras said Tuesday in a meeting with Greek President Katerina Sakellaropoulou. Syriza finished second in Sunday’s election with about 20% of the vote.
Following Sunday’s vote, the benchmark Athens Stock Exchange General Index jumped to its highest level in almost a decade while the yield on Greece’s 10-year bonds dropped by 14 basis points to 3.877%.
Tsipras’s decision reflects his low share of the vote and the fact that none of the other party leaders wants to work with him.
Greece’s president will now call on Nikos Androulakis, leader of the socialist Pasok party which placed third in the election, to take on the mandate. Androulakis is also expected to decline the chance to attempt to form a coalition.
