Greece: Electoral Change in an Era of Destabilisation and Realignment
The international economic crisis triggered an ‘electoral epidemic’ in Southern Europe, with voters punishing political elites for harsh austerity by abandoning their established party affiliations. Greece, in the frontline of the eurozone sovereign debt crisis, provided the most dramatic example. Under the impact of economic devastation, the country’s strong tradition of one-party majority governments, dominated for decades by the same two parties, broke down with astonishing speed. Unprecedented electoral volatility precipitated spectacular party system dealignment. A neo-Nazi party was propelled from the lunatic fringe of Greek politics into parliament. Repeat elections and coalition governments became the new normal.
Nevertheless, it soon appeared the party system was realigning around a new formation with the radical left SYRIZA as one of its two competing poles. The 2019 elections, just a year after the country’s bailout exit, produced a single-party majority for the first time in a decade. The next contest in 2023 raised the question how a switch to simple proportional representation would impact on the party system.
This collection from the archives of South European Society and Politics includes seven election articles, covering four national parliamentary polls, two European Parliament elections, three local government contests and the 2015 bailout referendum, providing a full picture of the electoral change which has taken place during this volatile period. Additional articles examine the success of the main challenger parties, investigate the technocrat-led government formed in the shadow of the second bailout negotiation, and shed further light on how austerity affected electoral behaviour, while also offering some comparisons with other South European countries.
Edited by
Susannah Verney(National and Kapodistrian University of Athens, Greece)
Anna Bosco(University of Florence, Italy)