Greece's New Democracy party leader Kyrikos Mitsotakis was sworn in as prime minister on Monday following snap elections that saw him defeat left-wing Alexis Tsipras .

Mitsotakis' New Democracy party won 39.8% of the vote, giving him 158 seats in the 300-member parliament, a comfortable governing majority.

Tsipras' Coalition of the Radical Left, or Syriza, garnered 31.5%. The extremist right-wing Golden Dawn, Greece's third largest party during the height of the financial crisis, failed to make the 3% threshold to enter parliament.

More to come... </s> ATHENS (Reuters) - Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras called opposition leader Kyriakos Mitsotakis to congratulate him on his victory in general elections on Sunday, an official of Mitsotakis party said.

The handover would take place on Monday, after Mitsotakis’s swearing in as new Prime Minister, the official said. </s> Leader of New Democracy conservative party and winner of Greek general election Kyriakos Mitsotakis is sworn in as prime minister during a ceremony at the Presidential Palace in Athens, Greece July 8, 2019. REUTERS/Alkis Konstantinidis

ATHENS (Reuters) - Greece’s New Democracy party leader Kyrikos Mitsotakis was sworn in as prime minister on Monday after a landslide victory in snap elections on a platform of investments, lower taxes and jobs.

Mitsotakis will likely face an uphill battle squaring his promises with fiscal targets agreed with lenders. </s> ATHENS (Reuters) - Greek opposition leader Kyriakos Mitsotakis called for the resignation of Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras on Sunday after a European Parliament election result which Mitsotakis’s party won.

“It is obvious that the Greek people have withdrawn their confidence in this government .. The Prime Minister must assume his responsibilities. He must resign and the country should hold national elections the soonest possible.”

Early election results showed Mitsotakis’s New Democracy party leading Tsipras’s Syriza party by up to nine points. At present, elections are scheduled to be held in October. </s> (Bloomberg) -- Greece’s center-right New Democracy leader Kyriakos Mitsotakis is likely to succeed Alexis Tsipras as prime minister after preliminary results showed the former banker scored a clear victory in Sunday’s national election.

New Democracy won 39.8% of the vote, with around 27% of the votes counted, according the interior ministry, compared with 31.5% for Tsipras’s Syriza party. New Democracy will have at least 154 lawmakers in the 300-seat parliament, the results showed.

To contact the reporter on this story: Eleni Chrepa in Athens at echrepa@bloomberg.net

To contact the editors responsible for this story: Sotiris Nikas at snikas@bloomberg.net, Iain Rogers </s> Greece's ruling leftist Syriza party suffered a landslide defeat in elections yesterday, bringing an end to the government of prime minister Alexis Tsipras.

Greece's ruling leftist Syriza party suffered a landslide defeat in elections yesterday, bringing an end to the government of prime minister Alexis Tsipras.

The opposition conservatives have been returned to power, with prime minister-elect Kyriakos Mitsotakis saying he had a clear mandate for change, pledging more investments and fewer taxes.

The win appeared driven by fatigue with years of EU-enforced belt-tightening, combined with high unemployment, after the country almost crashed out of the eurozone at the height of its financial travails in 2015.

Conservative New Democracy had a commanding lead of 39.6pc of the vote - based on 73pc of the votes counted - versus 31.6pc Syriza, according to official tallies.

Exit polls showed New Democracy winning between 155 and 167 seats in the 300-member parliament, taking advantage of an electoral system which gives bonus seats to the frontrunner.

Mr Mitsotakis said in a televised address: "I am committed to fewer taxes, many investments, for good and new jobs, and growth which will bring better salaries and higher pensions in an efficient state."

Mr Tsipras said he respected the will of the Greek people.

"Today, with our head held high we accept the people's verdict," he said.

"To bring Greece to where it is today we had to take difficult decisions (with) a heavy political cost."

Mr Tsipras took over from the conservatives in 2015 as Greece was at the peak of a financial crisis that had ravaged the country since 2010.

Initially vowing to resist deeper austerity, he was forced into signing up to another bailout months after his election, a decision that went down badly with voters.

Mr Mitsotakis, who comes from a powerful political dynasty and whose late father Konstantinos was prime minister from 1990 to 1993, will be sworn into office as early as today.

The 51-year-old assumed the helm of New Democracy in 2016. Although he is seen as a liberal, his party also harbours members with more right-wing views.

Golden Dawn, an extreme right-wing party accused of having neo-Nazi sympathies, lost significant ground with early results suggesting it may not reach the 3pc threshold to gain a presence in parliament.

"The basic reason (for the result) is the economy," said analyst Theodore Couloumbis. "In the past four years, people saw no improvement. There were cutbacks in salaries and pensions."

Mr Mitsotakis will inherit an economy that is growing at a moderate clip but troubled public finances. </s> Greek conservative opposition leader Kyriakos Mitsotakis has comfortably won a parliamentary election as voters rejected Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras after a tumultuous four years.

With more than 80 per cent of votes counted, Mitsotakis' New Democracy party had 39.7 per cent of the vote compared to Tsipras' left-wing Syriza party at 31.6 per cent on Sunday.

The extreme right-wing Golden Dawn, founded by neo-Nazi supporters, teetered just below the three per cent threshold needed to enter parliament, a massive fall of support for a party that had become the third largest in the Greek legislature during the country's financial crisis.

The results indicated that Greek voters were bucking a recent trend in Europe of citizens rejecting the political mainstream and turning to populist and eurosceptic parties.

"I asked for a strong mandate to change Greece. You offered it generously," Mitsotakis said in his victory speech.

Mitsotakis, 51, vowed to abide by his campaign pledges to cut taxes, attract investment and improve the job market.

He had been ahead in opinion polls for three years and managed to build a sizeable lead.

"Greeks deserve better and the time has come for us to prove it," he said.

Tsipras conceded defeat and said he phoned Mitsotakis to congratulate him.

"The citizens have made their choice. We fully respect the popular vote," Tsipras said in a speech from central Athens.

He said his party now would work to protect the rights of working Greeks as "a responsible but dynamic opposition" to the government.

The election was the first held since Greece emerged from three international bailouts that were dependent on successive governments implementing strict austerity measures, including major tax hikes and spending cuts.

The financial crisis saw unemployment and poverty levels skyrocket and the economy shrink by a quarter.

Mitsotakis, the son of a former prime minister, brother of a former foreign minister and uncle to a newly elected mayor of Athens, fought during the campaign to shed the image of family privilege.

He pledged to make Greece more business-friendly, attract foreign investment, to modernise the country's notorious bureaucracy and to cut taxes.

Tsipras, 44, called the election three months ahead of schedule after Syriza suffered a severe defeat in EU and local elections in May and early June.

He had led his small Coalition of the Radical Left, or Syriza, party to power in 2015 on promises to repeal the austerity of Greece's first two bailouts.

But after months of tumultuous negotiations with international creditors that saw Greece nearly crash out of the EU's joint currency, he was forced to change tack.

He signed up to a third bailout and imposed the accompanying spending cuts and tax hikes.

Tsipras also cemented a deal with neighbouring North Macedonia under which that country changed its name from plain "Macedonia".

Although praised by Western allies, the deal angered many Greeks, who consider use of the term harbours expansionist aims on the Greek province of the same name. </s> The centre-right New Democracy (ND) Party of ex-banker Kyriakos Mitsotakis is poised to win the Greek snap parliamentary elections the Greek snap parliamentary election with between 38 to 42% of votes, which translates to 155-167 seats in the 300-seat Greek parliament, a Greek TV channel ERT suggest citin exit polls.

The ruling leftist alliance Syriza of Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras is set to win 26.5-30.5 percent of the vote and 77-82 seats.

​The socialist Kinal party will get 6-8 percent of the vote and 19-22 seats. The Communists are fourth with 5-7 percent of the vote and 16-19 seats.

DiEM25 of ex-Finance Minister Yanis Varoufakis is set to gain 3-5 percent of the vote an 8-14 seats. Traditionalist Greek Solution is on 2.8-4.8 percent with up to 13 seats, while far-right New Dawn is on 2.5-4.5 percent with the same amount of seats.

Greeks went to the polls on Sunday after the ruling party called a snap general election after it lost to the centre-right ND Party in May’s European Parliament elections and the opposition urged Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras to resign. </s> Centre-right leader Kyriakos Mitsotakis was sworn in as Greece’s new Prime Minister on Monday just a day after his New Democracy party landed an absolute majority in the country’s elections, which put an end to the left-wing Syriza government.

Unlike his predecessor Alexis Tspiras back in 2015, Mitsotakis took a religious oath of office with his hand on the Bible in the presence of the Archbishop of Athens, Ieronymous II, and several other Orthodox representatives in a traditional ceremony at the presidential palace, reported Efe news.

“I swear in the name of the Holy, Consubstantial and Indivisible Trinity to safeguard the Constitution and the laws and to serve the general interest of the Greek people,” he said, joined by President Prokopis Pavlopoulos, his wife and three children.

In a brief statement before heading off to the government headquarters to exchange functions with Tsipras, Mitsotakis reiterated the message he gave on election night: “The people have given us a strong mandate to change the country. From today we will begin to work very hard,” he said.

Tsipras welcomed him with a handshake, something that the outgoing PM’s predecessor, the conservative Andonis Samaras, did not do in 2015.

New Democracy took 39.8 per cent of the national vote in Sunday’s elections, meaning it landed 158 of the 300 parliamentary seats, while Syriza dropped to 31.5 per cent, or 86 lawmakers.

Under Greek norms, the winning party is awarded 50 bonus seats.

The results make way for bipartisanship in Parliament once again, as Syriza comprises a strong opposition force, with a 20-point advantage over its nearest challenger, the centrist Kinal party.

New Democracy obtained its best showing in more than a decade, as voters fled not only Syriza but several other major parties towards the centre-right.

The outgoing governing party secured just four points less than what it achieved in 2015.

Kinal scraped 8 per cent, two percentage points more than its previous showing.

The communist KKE held onto its 5 per cent share, largely thanks to the collapse of the neo-Nazi Golden Dawn, which took just 2.9 percent, less than half of what it achieved last time around and not enough to make the cut for parliamentary seats.

This does not indicate that the hunger for the far-right was ebbing in Greece, as Greek Solution took 10 seats or 3.7 per cent of the vote.
Leader of the Opposition Kyriakos Mitsotakis, from New Democracy, wins an absolute majority and is expected to be sworn in Prime Minister as incumbent Alexis Tsipras falls to second place. Far-right Golden Dawn loses all the seats they had in the Parliament.