By Ahmet Gencturk
ATHENS (AA) - Kyriakos Mitsotakis was sworn in as the Greek premier following his conservative New Democracy party’s landslide victory in Sunday's elections, local media reported on Monday.
Mitsotakis, who received the mandate from President Katerina Sakellaropoulou to form a government, took his oath in the Presidential Palace in the capital Athens before the president and in the presence of country’s senior Orthodox Christian clerics and his family members.
- June 25 Greek elections
In the elections held on Sunday that created the most right-wing parliament in the country since 1974, conservative New Democracy gained 40.55% of the votes and consequently secured 158 of the 300 seats in the parliament.
Though leftist SYRIZA led by Alexis Tsipras preserved its position as the main opposition party by becoming second with 17.84% of the votes and 48 parliamentary seats, the results indicate a major defeat for the party, as confirmed by its leaders as well.
Social democratic PASOK party became third with 11.85% which enabled it to secure 32 seats in the parliament.
Greek Communist Party (KKE), which has a strong presence in some major trade unions and working-class districts in Athens and the port city of Piraeus as well as some Aegean islands such as Ikaria, got 7.69% and 20 seats.
The Spartans party, which was openly backed by imprisoned lawmaker Ilias Kasidiaris of the banned neo-Nazi Golden Dawn, won over 4.68% of the votes and entered the parliament for the first time with 12 seats.
Also, the far-right, populist Greek Solution party and the far-right, religious Niki (Victory) party were others that passed the 3% electoral threshold and entered the parliament, with 4.45% and 3.70%, respectively. They secured 12 and 10 parliamentary seats, respectively.
Meanwhile, the Sailing for Freedom party founded by former Parliament Speaker Zoe Constantopoulou secured eight seats in the parliament with 3.17%, while the MeRA25 led by Tsipras’ former Finance Minister Yanis Varoufakis stayed out of the parliament with 2.46%.
The country’s 150,000-strong Turkish minority will be represented by four lawmakers, with two of them elected from SYRIZA, while two others from PASOK lists.
The turnout rate in Sunday's elections was only 52.82 %, down from 61.1% in the May 21 elections.