New Democracy (Greece)

New Democracy (ND; in Greek, Νέα Δημοκρατία, Néa Dimokratía, AFI: [ˈnea ðimokɾaˈtia]) is the main center-right party and one of the majority parties in Greece. It was founded in 1974 by Konstantinos Karamanlis and was part of the third government of the Third Hellenic Republic. After serving in the Greek Government from 2004 to 2009, she was defeated in the elections that same year by PASOK. After the defeat, the previous president Kostas Karamanlis, nephew of the party's founder, resigned and Antonis Samarás was elected as the new president of the party through a leadership election in November 2009. New Democracy was between 2015 and 2019 the main party of the opposition in the Hellenic parliament after its major defeat in the 2015 Greek general elections (it returned to power between 2012 and January 2015) in which it was clearly surpassed by the leftist SYRIZA. New Democracy is a member of the European People's Party and currently has 8 representatives in the European parliament. On July 5, 2015, after the poor results in the elections and the great defeat in the referendum, its president Antonis Samaras resigned. Kyriakos Mitsotakis currently serves as president of the party and under his leadership, the party returned to power by winning the 2019 legislative elections.

It currently has 158 seats on the Council of the Hellenes. The party won 33% of the vote in the 2019 European elections.

It obtained an absolute majority in the 2019 parliamentary elections, returning to power with Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis. New Democracy managed to attract far-right personalities and voters. A part of the Golden Dawn electorate opted for him, but so did the main figures of the Orthodox Popular Concentration, including its former leader Spyrídon-Ádonis Georgiádis (appointed Minister of Growth and Investment in the new Government of Kyriakos Mitsotakis) or Mavroudís Vorídis (now Minister of Agriculture and spokesman for New Democracy). Historian Dimitris Kousouris states that "the party wants to create a fairly broad bloc with all the conservative and nationalist forces, and there are several far-right politicians in it."

History

Foundation

New Democracy was founded on October 4, 1974 by Konstantinos Karamanlis, at the beginning of the metapolitefsi era following the fall of the Greek military junta. Karamanlis, who had already served as Prime Minister of Greece from 1955 to 1963, He was sworn in as the first Prime Minister of the Third Hellenic Republic in a government of national unity on July 24, 1974, until the first free elections of the new era. He intended New Democracy to be a more modern and progressive political party than the right-wing parties that governed Greece before the 1967 Greek coup, including his own National Radical Union (ERE). The party's ideology was defined as 'radical liberalism', a term defined as 'the predominance of free market rules with the decisive intervention of the state in favor of social justice'. The party was formed from dissident members of the pre-Junta Center Union and the National Radical Union, both former monarchists and Venizelists.

First government (1974-1981)

In the 1974 legislative elections, New Democracy won a massive parliamentary majority of 220 seats with a record 54.37% of the vote, a result attributed to Karamanlis's personal appeal to the electorate. Karamanlis was elected Prime Minister and soon decided to hold a referendum on December 8, 1974 on the question of the form of government; With a large majority of 69.17%, the monarchy was finally abolished in favor of a republic. The next important issue for the New Democracy cabinet was the creation of the Constitution of Greece, which came into force in 1975 and established Greece as a parliamentary republic. On June 12, 1975, Greece requested entry into the European Communities, of which it had already been an associate member since 1961, while it had already been readmitted to the Council of Europe on November 28, 1974.

In the 1977 elections, New Democracy again won a large parliamentary majority of 171 seats, although with a small percentage of the popular vote (41.84%). Under Karamanlis, Greece redefined its relations with NATO and attempted to resolve the Cyprus dispute following the Turkish invasion of the island. In 1979, the first conference of the party was held in Chalkidiki, where its ideological principles defined under the term 'radical liberalism', as well as its statute and the operating regulations of its organizations, were unanimously approved. It was the first conference of any Greek political party whose delegates were elected by the members.

Karamanlis' vision of Greece's accession to the European Communities, despite the determined opposition of the Panhellenic Socialist Movement (PASOK) and the Communist Party of Greece (KKE), led to the signing of the Accession Treaty on May 28, 1979 in Athens; Following the ratification of the law by the Council of Hellenes on June 28, 1979, Greece became the tenth member state of the European Communities on January 1, 1981. Karamanlis was criticized by opposition parties for not holding a referendum, despite the fact that Greece's accession to the European Communities had been at the forefront of the New Democracy political platform, under which the party had been elected to power. Meanwhile, Karamanlis resigned as prime minister. in 1980 and was elected president of Greece by parliament, a position he held until 1985. Georgios Rallis was elected the new leader of New Democracy and succeeded Karamanlis as prime minister.

Opposition and rise to power of Mitsotakis (1981-1989)

Under the leadership of Georgios Rallis, New Democracy was defeated in the 1981 legislative elections by Andreas Papandreou's Panhellenic Socialist Movement (PASOK), which ran on a left-wing progressive platform, and placed itself in opposition for the first time. time with 35.87% of the votes and 115 seats. On the same day, 18 October 1981, New Democracy was also defeated in the first Greek elections to the European Parliament. The following December, the party's parliamentary group elected Evangelos Averoff, former Minister of National Defense, as president of New Democracy, but he resigned in 1984 due to health problems. On September 1, 1984, he succeeded Konstantinos Mitsotakis as president of the party and managed to increase his percentage in the 1985 elections to 40.85%, although he was defeated again and remained in the opposition.

Second government (1989-1993)

Mitsotakis led New Democracy to a clear victory in the legislative elections of June 1989, registering 44.28% of the vote but, due to the modification of the electoral law by the outgoing PASOK government, New Democracy won only 145 seats which were not enough to form a government. itself. The consequences were the formation of a coalition government under Tzannis Tzannetakis, consisting of New Democracy and Coalition of the Left and Progress (Synaspismos), and the latter also included at that time the Communist Party of Greece (KKE). In the November 1989 elections, New Democracy won a more comfortable victory, increasing their share to 46.19% of the vote and 148 seats but, under the same electoral law, they still had to form a government and this led to a of unity together with PASOK and Synaspismos, under Xenophon Zolotas.

Finally, in the 1990 elections, Mitsotakis's New Democracy once again defeated Papandreou's PASOK with an 8.28% lead, but this time 46.89% of the vote gave them 150 seats, giving them 150 seats. allowed Mitsotakis to form a majority in parliament with the support of the single Democratic Renewal Deputy (DIANA) and one more seat awarded by the Special Supreme Court, after an error was detected in the counting of seats. After three consecutive large victories with high vote percentages, Mitsotakis became the 178th Prime Minister of Greece and the 7th Prime Minister of the Third Hellenic Republic, although with a narrow parliamentary majority of 152 seats due to the current electoral law. at that moment.

In a turbulent international political environment following the fall of communism in Europe in 1989, the Mitsotakis government focused on cutting public spending, privatizing state-owned enterprises, reforming public administration and restoring the original electoral system, with the addition of an electoral threshold of 3%. In foreign policy, the priorities were the restoration of trust between Greece's economic and political partners, NATO and the United States. Mitsotakis also supported a new dialogue with Turkey over the Cyprus dispute and a compromise over the dispute over Macedonia's name; The latter sparked irritation among New Democracy deputies, leading Andonis Samaras to leave and form a new political party in June 1993, Political Spring; A later withdrawal of his parliamentary group resulted in the loss of New Democracy's majority in parliament and the calling of early elections.

Opposition (1993-2004)

In the 1993 elections, New Democracy suffered an easy defeat with 39.30% of the vote, leading to the resignation of Mitsotakis and the election of Miltiadis Evert as party leader. In the 1996 legislative elections, New Democracy was again defeated by Costas Simitis' PASOK with 38.12%, but Evert won re-election as party leader that same year. However, in the spring of 1997 a new conference was held to elect a new president among others. Kostas Karamanlis, nephew of the party's founder, was elected sixth president of New Democracy.

Under Karamanlis, New Democracy experienced an evident rise in popularity, but in the 2000 elections it lost by only 1.06% of the popular vote, the smallest margin in modern Greek history, registering 42.74% and obtaining 125 seats in parliament. By 2003, New Democracy consistently led Simitis' PASOK in opinion polls; In January 2004, Simitis resigned and announced elections for March 7, while Yorgos Papandreou succeeded him in the leadership of PASOK.

Third government (2004-2009)

Despite speculation that Papandreou would succeed in restoring the fortunes of the Panhellenic Socialist Movement (PASOK), in the 2004 elections, Karamanlis achieved a clear victory with 45.36% of the vote and 165 seats, and New Democracy returned to power after eleven years in opposition, scoring a historic record of 3,359,682 votes in the history of Greek elections. Regions that consistently support New Democracy include the Peloponnese, Central Macedonia and Western Macedonia. On the other hand, the party is weak in Crete, the Aegean Islands, Attica and Western Greece.

On September 16, 2007, Kostas Karamanlis won reelection with a reduced majority in Parliament and declared: 'Thank you for your trust. He has spoken loud and clear and has chosen the course that the country will take in the coming years. & # 39; PASOK's George Papandreou accepted defeat (the New Democracy party with 41.84% and the opposition party PASOK with 38.1%).

2009 defeat

On September 2, 2009, Karamanlis announced his intention to call elections, although it was not necessary until September 2011. Parliament was dissolved on September 9 and the 2009 legislative elections were held on October 4. New Democracy's share of the parliamentary vote fell to 33.47% (a decline of 8.37%) and they won only 91 of 300 seats, falling by 61 since the last election. Rival PASOK shot up to 43.92% (up 5.82%), and won 160 seats (up 58). The 33.5% tally marked a record low for the party since its founding in 1974. Karamanlis admitted defeat and declared that he would resign as leader of New Democracy and would not stand as a candidate in the party's next election. Two former Ministers of Foreign Affairs, Dora Bakoyannis and Andonis Samaras, as well as the Prefect of Thessaloniki Panagiotis Psomiadis were announced as candidates, with Samaras the favorite to win.

On November 29, 2009, Antonis Samaras was elected the new leader of New Democracy by the party's base in the 2009 leadership election. Following early results showing Samaras in the lead, his main rival, Dora Bakoyannis, admitted defeat and congratulated Samaras on his election; She later left New Democracy to found his own party, Democratic Alliance. Samaras himself had also left New Democracy in 1992 due to his firm stance on the Macedonian name dispute and founded his own party, Political Spring; he returned to New Democracy in 2004.

2011 public debt crisis

New Democracy was in opposition during the first phase (2009-2011) of the Greek government's debt crisis, which included the first bailout package agreed in May 2010. The party did not support the first bailout package of the EU/IMF of May 2010 and the three austerity packages of March 2010, May 2010 and June 2011. On 27 October 2011, Prime Minister George Papandreou agreed further measures with the EU and private banks and insurance companies. The goal was to complete negotiations by the end of the year and launch a second full rescue package to complement the one agreed in May. 2010. Samaras initially criticized the deal. In reality, New Democracy had dismissed the cross-party agreement even before the deal was agreed.

A few days later, Papandreou announced a surprise referendum. During the frenetic negotiations that followed, Samaras offered to support the austerity package he had initially condemned if Papandreou resigned and an interim government was appointed to lead the country to elections early in the new year.

The referendum never took place and Papandreou resigned in early November 2011. New Democracy supported the new national unity government led by Lucas Papademos; However, the party's support for austerity seemed lukewarm at first.

Within a few days, party officials talked about 'renegotiating' existing agreements with the EU and the IMF. The EU partners requested that Samaras sign a letter committing to the terms of the rescue package, in what was seen as an effort to keep nationalist elements in his party happy. Samaras argued that his word should be enough and that the demand for a written commitment was "humiliating." Both Papademos and the EU insisted on a written commitment. New Democracy reiterated its call for new elections. Samaras was said to be infuriating European leaders by only partially endorsing the international reform programme. A meeting of eurozone finance ministers was postponed in February 2012, when it was made It was evident that not all the main political parties were willing to commit to meeting the conditions demanded in exchange for the rescue package; A day later, Samaras changed course and wrote to the European Commission and the IMF, promising to implement austerity measures if his party won the general election in April. German Finance Minister Wolfgang Schäuble suggested postponing the elections and establishing a small technocratic cabinet like Italy's to run Greece for the next two years.

Fourth government with PASOK (2012-2015)

In the May 2012 elections, New Democracy regained the largest party but failed to win a majority. The leftist anti-austerity Coalition of the Radical Left (SYRIZA), led by Alexis Tsipras, became the second largest party and refused to negotiate with New Democracy and PASOK. After the general election, New Democracy was unable to form a coalition government.

During his government, New Democracy introduced a strict immigration policy and proposed strengthening this policy as part of its political agenda.

In opposition (2015-2019)

In his electoral campaign for the January 2015 legislative elections, Samaras promised to continue with his plan to exit the bailout and return to growth through more privatizations, a corporate tax rate reduced to 15 percent and a recapitalization of banks. Greece. The party received a total of €747,214 in state funding, the most of any political party in Greece. In the elections, ND was defeated by SYRIZA. On July 5, 2015, Samaras resigned from the party leadership.

New Democracy was again defeated by SYRIZA in the September 2015 elections, but maintained its number of seats in the Council of Hellenes. On January 10, 2016, Kyriakos Mitsotakis was elected the new leader of the party.

On October 4, 2018, the party adopted a new logo.

Fifth government (2019-present)

In the 2019 legislative elections, New Democracy won 158 seats in the 300-seat Council of Hellenes, the majority of seats, allowing it to form its own government under Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis.

During the COVID-19 pandemic, Mitsotakis' efforts to deal with the prolonged lockdown in Greece received widespread praise from the Greek and international press, analysts, and academics, for the well-structured approach and confidence continues in the scientific expertise of the Greek pandemic task force, headed by Sotiris Tsiodras. In 2021, the country managed to keep new cases of COVID-19 at low levels by imposing strict consecutive lockdowns in Athens and Thessaloniki, and enabling different protocols of emergency for rural areas. At the same time, the government focused on tackling the pandemic ahead of the launch of the 2021 summer tourism season in a bid to boost the country's economy.

During his tenure as Prime Minister, Mitsotakis received praise for his pro-European and technocratic government, his handling of the COVID-19 pandemic, and his overall management of the Greek economy, with Greece being named the best economic performer for 2022 by The Economist. This was in particular because Greece in 2022 was able to pay ahead of schedule 2.7 billion euros ($2.87 billion) of loans owed to eurozone countries under the first bailout it received during its decade-long debt crisis., in addition to being on the verge of achieving investment grade rating. However, Mitsotakis has also received criticism, as during his term, Greece has experienced an increase in corruption, and a deterioration in press freedom. His term was also marred by the corruption scandal of Novartis, the 2022 wiretapping scandal and the Tempi train accident. In addition, it has received praise and criticism for its handling of migration, receiving praise and help from the European Union, but criticism from journalists and activists for returns, which his government has denied.

In the May 2023 elections, the only election to use the purely proportional system introduced by SYRIZA in 2016, Mitsotakis led the party to achieve a plurality of seats in parliament. Shortly after the results were announced, Mitsotakis called a snap election for the following month, and this election reverted to the majority bonus system.

Ideology

The party denounces the Prespa agreement, approved in 2018, on the recognition of North Macedonia and accuses Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras of "betraying the nation", adopting nationalist rhetoric.

Ahead of the parliamentary elections in July 2019, he promises to cut VAT, taxes on corporate profits, accelerate privatizations, outsource some public services and implement an "evaluation" of the officials.

Academic Filippa Chatzistavrou points out that after the 2019 parliamentary elections, the fall of Golden Dawn and the opening of New Democracy to its right 'has brought together a xenophobic right, a populist-nationalist right and a center -liberal right". This political mix revolves around three poles: a form of authoritarianism in the management of the State; a very liberal agenda on the economic front; a nativist populism that emphasizes identity politics."

Party Leaders

Name	Photo	Home	Fin	Other charges
Konstantinos Karamanlis		4 October 1974	8 May 1980	President of Greece (1990-1995; 1980-1985) Prime Minister of Greece (1974-1980; 1961-1963; 1958-1961; 1955-1958)
Georgios Rallis		8 May 1980	9 December 1981	Prime Minister of Greece (1980-1981) Minister for Foreign Affairs (1978-1980) Minister of National Education and Religious Affairs (1976-1977) Minister of the Interior (1961-1963)
Evangelos Averoff		9 December 1981	1 September 1984	Minister of National Defence (1974-1981) Minister for Foreign Affairs (1961-1963; 1958-1961; 1956-1958)
Konstantinos Mitsotakis		1 September 1984	3 November 1993	Prime Minister of Greece (1990-1993) Minister for Foreign Affairs (April-August 1992; 1980-1981) Minister of the Aegean (1991-1993) Minister for Coordination (1978-1980; 1965-1966) Council of the Hellenes (1946-2004)
Evert Miltiades		3 November 1993	21 March 1997	Mayor of Athens (1987-1989) Minister of Finance (1980-1981)
Kostas Karamanlis		21 March 1997	30 November 2009	Prime Minister of Greece (2004-2009) Minister of Culture (2004-2006) Member of the Council of Helenes (1989-present)
Antonis Samaras		30 November 2009	5 July 2015	Prime Minister of Greece (2012-2015) Minister of Culture and Sports (January-October 2009) Member of the European Parliament (2004-2007) Minister for Foreign Affairs (1990-1992; 1989-1990) Minister of Finance (July-October 1989)
Vangelis Meimarakis (internal)		5 July 2015	24 November 2015	Member of the European Parliament (2019-present) President of the Council of Helenes (2012-2015) Minister of National Defence (2006-2009) Member of the Council of Helenes (1989-2019)
Ioannis Plakiotakis (internal)		24 November 2015	10 January 2016	Minister of Navigation and Insular Policy (2019-present) Representative of the Council of the Hellenes (2004-present)
Kyriakos Mitsotakis		10 January 2016	present	Prime Minister of Greece (2019-present) Minister of Administrative Reform (2013-2015) Representative of the Council of the Hellenes (2004-present)

Election results

Council of the Hellenes

Year	Votes			Counsellors		Position	Post	Notes
	#	%	± %	#	±
1974	2,669,133	54.37%		220/300		Government	1
1977	2,146,365	41.84%	12.6	171/300	49	Government	1
1981	2,034,496	35.88%	5.9	115/300	56	Opposition	2°
1985	2.599.681	40.85%	4.9	126/300	11	Opposition	2°
06/1989	2.887,488	44.28%	3.5	145/300	19	Government	1	No government training
11/1989	3,093,479	46.19%	1.9	148/300	3	Government	1	No government training
1990	3,088,137	46.89%	0.7	150/300	2	Government	1
1993	2,711,737	39.30%	7.6	111/300	39	Opposition	2°
1996	2,586,089	38.12%	1.2	108/300	3	Opposition	2°
2000	2,935,196	42.74%	4.6	125/300	17	Opposition	2°
2004	3,360,424	45.36%	2.7	165/300	40	Government	1
2007	2,994.979	41.87%	3.6	152/300	13	Government	1
2009	2,295,967	33.47%	8.3	91/300	61	Opposition	2°	Government since 2011
05/2012	1,192,103	18.85%	14.6	108/300	17	Government	1	No government training
06/2012	1,825,497	29.66%	10.8	129/300	21	Government	1
01/2015	1,718,815	27.81%	1.9	76/300	53	Opposition	2°
09/2015	1,526,205	28.09%	0.3	75/300	1	Opposition	2.
2019	2,251,411	39.85%	11.7	158/300	83	Government	1o
05/2023	2,403,918	40.79%	0.94	146/300	12	-	1o	No government training
06/2023	2,113,087	40.55%	0.24	158/300	12	Government	1o

European Parliament elections

European Parliament
Election	Votes	%	±	Scalls	+/−	Position	Leader
1981	1,779,462	31.3%	New	8/24	8	#2	Georgios Rallis
1984	2,266,568	38.1%	+6.8	9/24	1	#2	Evangelos Averoff
1989	2.647,215	40.5%	+2.4	10/24	1	#1	Constantine Mitsotakis
1994	2,133,372	32.7%	-7.8	9/25	1	#2	Miltiadis Evert
1999	2,314,371	36.0%	+3.3	9/25	0	#1	Kostas Karamanlis
2004A	2,633,961	43.0%	+4.7	11/24	2	#1
2009	1,655,636	32.3%	-10.7	8/22	3	#2
2014	1,298,713	22.7%	-9.6	5/21	3	#2	Antonis Samaras
2019	1,872,814	33.1%	+10.4	7/21	2	#1	Kyriakos Mitsotakis

^A The 2004 results are compared to the combined totals of ND and Political Spring (POLAN) in the 1999 elections.

Symbols

The traditional symbol of the party has been the torch of freedom, incorporated into its logo, although in a stylized way in the logo adopted in 2018.

Logos

• Party Logo, 1978–2010

  Party Logo, 1978–2010

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  Party Logo, 2010–2018

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  Logo Current, since 2018