In a surprising twist, abstention emerged as the clear winner of the 2024 European Elections in Greece. Faced with a choice between casting their votes and enjoying a day at the beach, a significant number of voters opted for the latter, signaling their dissatisfaction with the current political landscape. The abstention rate soared to 60%.
To put this in perspective, last year’s national elections saw 5,273,699 voters head to the polls, whereas yesterday, only 4,062,092 voters participated—a decrease of over 1.2 million.
The ruling liberal-conservative party, New Democracy, maintained its lead but with considerable losses, which neither the main opposition party, SYRIZA, nor the social-democratic PASOK were able to exploit.
What the EU election results mean for Greece
New Democracy‘s support dropped significantly from the 33% it secured in the 2019 European Elections and even further from the 40.79% of the 2023 national elections, managing only 28.31% this time. Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis conceded, “We fell short of our goal.” The party lost one seat in the European Parliament, now holding seven.
The center-left opposition, SYRIZA, managed to secure four seats, two fewer than in the previous European Elections.
PASOK, the social-democratic party, increased its representation by one seat, earning a total of three seats.
Parties positioned further to the right of New Democracy experienced significant gains, indicating a worrying trend of rising far-right influence in Greece, mirroring broader European patterns.
Specifically, the nationalist party Eliniki Lisi doubled its vote share, surpassing 9%, and secured two MEPs.
The right-wing conservative orthodox party, Niki, also increased its representation, electing one MEP.
The far-right party Foni Logikis, which was founded in 2023 and participated in the elections for the first time, managed to secure one seat.
Despite an increase in its vote share, the communist party KKE fell to fifth place, behind Greek Solution.
Greece’s 21 MEPs
The 21 MEPs elected to represent Greece in the European Parliament are as follows:
New Democracy:
- Georgios Aftias: 304,937 votes
- Evangelos-Meimarakis Vassilios: 255,860 votes
- Elisabeth Vozemberg-Vryonidi (Eliza): 242,391 votes
- Dionysios-Fredis Beleris: 234,024 votes
- Eleonora Meleti: 170,297 votes
- Emmanouil Kefalogiannis: 159,246 votes
- Dimitrios Tsiodras: 154,518 votes
SYRIZA-PS:
- Konstantinos Arvanitis: 151,682 votes
- Nikolaos Farantouris: 134,188 votes
- Nikolaos Pappas: 125,545 votes
- Elena Kountoura: 112,676 votes
PASOK – Movement for Change:
- Nikolaos Papandreou: 120,970 votes
- Ioannis Maniatis: 106,303 votes
- Athanasios (Sakis) Arnaoutoglou: 90,459 votes
Eliniki Lisi:
- Emmanouil Fragkos: 108,901 votes
- Galateia Alexandraki: 50,494 votes
KKE:
- Lefteris Nikolaou-Alavanos: 106,406 votes
- Konstantinos Papadakis: 104,477 votes
Niki:
- Nikolaos Anadiotis: 41,310 votes
Plefsi Eleytherias – Zoe Konstantopoulou:
- Maria Zacharia: 22,739 votes
Foni Logikis
- Afroditi Latinopoulou
