Centre-left politics has been dealt a crushing blow in Greece. What can we learn from it? | Marina Prentoulis

The Syriza party did worse than most thought possible, despite a series of prime ministerial scandals and widespread poverty

Greece's election results were a big surprise for the winners, the losers and the pollsters. In a country where huge numbers of people are struggling every day, with almost a third of the population estimated to be at risk of poverty, the prime minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis's rightwing New Democracy party managed to secure 40% of the vote - a remarkable victory that no polling agency predicted.

The runner-up was the former prime minister Alexis Tsipras of the centre-left Syriza party, best known for its turbulent confrontation with the EU's economic centres of power in 2015. He picked up only 20% of the vote, much lower than the pollsters had predicted and lower than most Greeks - friends and enemies of Syriza alike - thought possible. The lack of an outright majority for New Democracy makes the most plausible scenario a second election in June or early July - this round is designed to give bonus seats to the winner, increasing its chances of securing a majority.