The Guardian view on the Greek election: the new hegemony | Editorial

A handsome victory for the centre-right is dismal news for those who have suffered from years of austerity

On Sunday night, the Greek prime minister, Kyriakos Mitsotakis, triumphantly described his country's general election result as an earthquake". After a remarkable victory, this piece of political hyperbole seemed almost justified.

Prior to the weekend, no ruling party had increased its vote share in Greece for more than 40 years. It had been predicted that a state wiretapping scandal, and the background to a catastrophic rail accident in February, could damage Mr Mitsotakis's prospects. Yet polls predicting a relatively close race proved wildly out, as the centre-right New Democracy party gained more than double the votes of its leftwing rival, Syriza. Having fractionally failed to win an absolute majority, Mr Mitsotakis may now trigger a second election - to be held under a different proportional system - which would be likely to hand him a handsome mandate.