@kmitsotakis
AMN
Greece’s centre-right leader Kyriakos Mitsotakis was sworn in as the Prime Minister for a second term today, a day after voters handed him a huge election victory for the second time in five weeks. Mr. Mitsotakis took the oath of office in the presidential palace at a ceremony before the leader of the Greek Orthodox Church, according to the tradition of the deeply religious country.
Hailing the strong mandate, Mr. Mitsotakis vowed to accelerate institutional and economic reforms. He said major reforms will proceed rapidly, adding that he had ambitious targets for his next four years in power that could transform Greece.
With 99.67 percent of the vote counted, Mr. Mitsotakis’ New Democracy party had 40.55 percent of the vote, more than twice the main opposition Syriza’s 17.84 percent. It was the largest margin of victory in half a century, and slightly expanded New Democracy’s 20-percentage-point lead in the previous election five weeks before. Held under a new electoral law that boosts the first party, yesterday’s vote gives New Democracy a comfortable majority of 158 seats in the 300-member Parliament, with Syriza getting 48. Center-left PASOK elected 32 lawmakers and the Stalinist-rooted Communist Party 20. The remaining 42 seats will be shared between three far-right parties and one representing the far left.
55 year old Mitsotakis, a Harvard graduate comes from one of Greece’s most prominent political families. His late father, Constantine Mitsotakis, served as the Prime Minister in the 1990s, his sister served as foreign minister and his nephew is the current mayor of Athens.