Parliamentary elections were held in Greece on Sunday, 17 June 2012, to elect all 300 members to the Hellenic Parliament in accordance with the constitution, after all attempts to form a new government failed following the May elections. If all attempts to form a new government fail, the constitution directs the president to dissolve a newly elected parliament, and then to call for new parliamentary elections within 30 days of the dissolution. The president announced at 16 May the date for the new election, and signed the formal decree to dissolve the parliament and call for the election at 19 May.
Compared to the previous elections a month earlier, the centre-right New Democracy and left-wing Syriza made significant gains to the detriment of all other parties. ND remained the largest party with 30% of the vote, while Syriza consolidated its gains and took 27%. Centre-left PASOK, which had suffered crushing losses in the previous election in May, failed to make any recovery. The right-wing populist Independent Greeks (ANEL) and Communist Party of Greece (KKE) declined, while the far-right Golden Dawn (XA) and the Democratic Left (DIMAR) stayed static in terms of vote share, though both lost seats.
No party achieved the 151 seats needed for an overall majority, though New Democracy held a strong plurality of 43% thanks to Greece's majority bonus system. As outlined by the constitution, the largest party led the first negotiations to try to form a new government. ND leader Antonis Samaras invited all elected parties to participate in a unity government which, while respecting the existing bailout agreement ratified in February 2012, would attempt to renegotiate the austerity terms of the agreement as its highest priority. Syriza rejected participation, but Samaras was ultimately able to form a coalition comprising ND, PASOK, and DIMAR on 20 June. He became Prime Minister in a cabinet of New Democracy politicians and several independent technocrats, two of whom were nominated by DIMAR, while PASOK chose to remain outside cabinet.
Background By section 37 of the constitution, the President of the Republic will consecutively give the leaders of the three largest parties in parliament an exploratory mandate to set up a government within three days, until one leader succeeds. If none does, "the President of the Republic shall summon all party leaders, and if the impossibility to form a Cabinet enjoying the confidence of the Parliament is confirmed, he shall attempt to form a Cabinet composed of all parties in Parliament for the purpose of holding parliamentary elections. If this fails, he shall entrust the President of the Supreme Administrative Court or of the Supreme Civil and Criminal Court or of the Court of Auditors to form a Cabinet as widely accepted as possible to carry out elections and dissolve Parliament."
May election
In the 6 May election, no party won an absolute majority of seats. President Karolos Papoulias, in accordance with the constitution, offered successive exploratory mandates to the leaders of the three largest parties: Antonis Samaras of New Democracy (ND), Alexis Tsipras of the Coalition of the Radical Left (SYRIZA), and Evangelos Venizelos of PASOK. Each in turn failed to form a government and returned their mandates to the president.
On 13 May, the president followed the terms of section 37 of the constitution and met with all party leaders to find a way of forming a majority government. After concluding on the eve of 14 May that it was impossible to form a new ordinary political government, in a last-ditch effort the president asked all the elected political leaders on 15 May if they could support the establishment of a "technocratic" government for a limited term, to guide Greece safely through its economic crisis. After this attempt also failed, he asked on 16 May, in full compliance with the constitution, for a caretaker cabinet under Council of State president Panayiotis Pikrammenos to be appointed, and to dissolve parliament and hold new elections on 17 June. The formal decree to dissolve the newly elected parliament and call for new elections was jointly signed by President Karolos Papoulias and caretaker Prime Minister Panayiotis Pikrammenos at 19 May, to fully comply with the 30-day constitutional rule.
German Finance Minister Wolfgang Schäuble said the election would be a referendum on Greece's continuation as a member of the eurozone. "If Greece—and this is the will of the great majority—wants to stay in the euro, then they have to accept the conditions," he said. "Otherwise it isn't possible. No responsible candidate can hide that from the electorate." Parallels were also drawn to the proposed Greek economy referendum, with suggestion that the two 2012 elections were a de facto referendum.
Incumbent parliament
Seven parties were elected at the May 2012 election, but this parliament was short-lived because a coalition government could not be formed; fresh elections were called.
Distribution of seats in parliament May 2012 Greek parliamentary election Official parties New Democracy (ND) 108 Syriza 52 PASOK 41 Independent Greeks (ANEL) 33 Communist Party of Greece (KKE) 26 Golden Dawn (XA) 21 Democratic Left (DIMAR) 19
Participating parties A total of 30 parties applied to participate in the June 2012 election. However, along with the approval of 58 independent candidates, the Supreme Court of Greece only granted an approval to participate for the following 21 parties (sorted by their size of votes in the previous election):
New Democracy (ND), Antonis Samaras Syriza, Alexis Tsipras PASOK, Evangelos Venizelos Independent Greeks (ANEL), Panos Kammenos Golden Dawn (XA), Nikolaos Michaloliakos Communist Party of Greece (KKE), Aleka Papariga Democratic Left (DIMAR), Fotis Kouvelis Recreate Greece – Action – Liberal Alliance (DX-DRASI-FS), Thanos Tzimeros, Stefanos Manos and Grigoris Vallianatos Ecologists Greens (OP), six-member committee Popular Orthodox Rally (LAOS), Yiorgos Karatzaferis Anticapitalist Left Cooperation for the Overthrow -Front of anticapitalist, revolutionary, communist and radical Left Ecology (ANTARSYA), 21-member committee I Don't Pay Movement, Vasilis Papadopoulos Union of Centrists (EK), Vassilis Leventis Pirate Party of Greece (KPE), I. Panagopoulos Society-Political Party of the Successors of Kapodistria, Michail Iliadis Communist Party of Greece (Marxist-Leninist) / Marxist-Leninist Communist Party of Greece (KKE(M–L) / ML KKE), four-member committee Liberal Party (LIBERTAS), Manolis Kaligiannis National Resistance Movement (KEAN), Ippokratis Savvouras (sole candidate) Renewing Independent Left, Renewing Right, Renewing Pasok, Renewing New Democracy, No to War, Party of Action, I Give Away Land, I Pardon Debts, I Save Lives, Panagrarian Labour Movement of Greece (PAEKE), Miltiadis Tzalazidis (sole perennial candidate) Panathinaikos Movement (PANKI), Yiorgos Betsikas (one of only two candidates) National Hope, G. Papadopoulos
Rejected parties The following 9 parties were for various reasons not approved by the Supreme Court: Regional Urban Development (PAA), Nikolos Kolitsis *(will instead campaign as a single independent candidate) Tyrannomachoi, Athanasios Daskalopoulos *(will instead campaign as a single independent candidate) Greek Vision, Anastasios Tsaneklidis *(will instead campaign as a single independent candidate) Greek White Movement Today's Ideology (ELKSI), Eleftherios Daniilidis *(will instead campaign as a single independent candidate) New Salvation Christian Democracy Party, A. Stoilis Citizens Assembly – Greek Confederacy with Direct Democracy in Action, coalition of independent candidates, G. Kokkas Popular Associations Partisan Social Groups (LEYKO), Konstantinos Ntalios PAME in GESEEP, Theod. Kyragiannis Greek Free Joining (EES), D. Michakis
Parties declining to participate Compared with the May 2012 election, and in addition to the unapproved parties above, the following nine parties are not participating in the June 2012 election (in order of the size of their vote in the previous election):
Democratic Alliance (DISY), opting to merge with ND on 22 May. Social Agreement (KOISY), Louka Katseli No: The coalition of Democratic Revival and United Popular Front (EPAM), Stelios Papathemelis and 3-member committee National Unity Association (SEE), N. Alikakos Workers Revolutionary Party (EEK), Sabetai Matsas Organisation for the Reconstruction of the Communist Party of Greece (OAKKE), 3-member committee Organisation of Communist Internationalists of Greece (OKDE), 3-member committee Dignity, alliance of independent candidates, Panayiotis Theodoropoulos Greek Ecologists, Dimosthenis Vergis
Procedure Voting is mandatory; however none of the legally existing penalties or sanctions have ever been enforced. 250 seats will be distributed on the basis of proportional representation, with a threshold of 3% required for entry into parliament. The other 50 seats will be awarded to the party that wins a plurality of votes, with coalitions in that regard not being counted as an overall party but having their votes counted separately for each party in the coalition, according to the election law. Parliamentary majority is achieved by a party or coalition of parties that command at least one half plus one (151 out of 300) of total seats. Blank and invalid votes, as well as votes cast for parties that fall short of the 3% threshold, are disregarded for seat allocation purposes.
Opinion polls
Most of the early polls conducted during the 10 days after the election at 6 May—where the political leaders unsuccessfully attempted to form a new government—showed SYRIZA taking the lead in popular support ahead of ND. This led to accusations from the political leaders at ND, PASOK and DIMAR, that SYRIZA deliberately had derailed all attempts to form a new government, with the sole purpose of pursuing their own interest of possibly growing in size after a new election. After the new June election was officially called at 16 May, there was an apparent change in political momentum, with most of the subsequent opinion polls now indicating that ND had taken the lead in popular support ahead of SYRIZA. According to Greek law, the polling companies were not allowed to publish additional opinion polls after the last working day two weeks ahead of the election, meaning that the last opinion polls were published at 1 June. Among all of the last published opinion polls, 9 out of 12 polling companies measured a lead of popular support for ND, while only the two polling companies, VPRC and Public Issue (who both adjust their vote results by performing a weighted prediction of the likely votes of undecided voters based on Time Series Analysis) believed the current lead of popular support belonged to SYRIZA, and the last polling company Pulse RC predicted it would end up with a draw.
According to Greek law, opinion polls are not allowed to be published after the last working day two weeks ahead of the official election day, and as a result the last date to publish a poll was 1 June 2012. However, the polling companies are still allowed to conduct opinion polls during the last two weeks of the election campaign for research purpose, as long as the results remain unpublished and secret. Greek banking stocks were up 20% on Thursday 15 June 2012, on reports that a secret poll had indicated that a pro-bailout government was likely to emerge.
According to the analysis of exit poll, SYRIZA had a significant lead for the age groups 18–34 years and 35–54 years, while ND had a significant lead in regards of the age group above 55 years: Exit poll (18–34 years): SYRIZA=33%, ND=20%, PASOK=6%. Exit poll (35–54 years): SYRIZA=34%, ND=24%, PASOK=8%. Exit poll (> 55 years): SYRIZA=20%, ND=39%, PASOK=17%.
Campaign