After the first months of 2023, the upward trend of the Greek stock market continues, reaching new high nine years old. In fact, “the Greek benchmark index has beaten most other stock markets since the beginning of the year”, observes the financial newspaper Handelsblatt.

Although Greece is awaiting the second election, he comments that “for the financial markets, the race is already over: the investors they are betting on another term of conservative Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis, […] a victory of which will mean greater security for investors.

The prospect of political stability, strong economic growth, excellent quarterly data from most companies and hopes that the once-beleaguered country will return to investment grade led the benchmark Athex Composite to a new nine-year high in late May.

Bond prices also benefited from the favorable conditions. […] Over the past two weeks, the Athens benchmark has gained more than 7%, reaching a total increase of 33.3% since the beginning of the year, with the Greek stock market thus outperforming most other markets.

HB also adds that “the 30 listed companies that reported data for the first quarter to the end of May reported an 82% increase in profits compared to last year, and the steady earnings are reflected in rising share prices.” The above, combined with the fact that Greece is a champion in reducing its debt among EU member states, make it increasingly likely that it will be upgraded to investment grade, which “would not only make the refinancing of of public debt, but would also allow Greek businesses more favorable financing options. At the same time, the prospect of the Athens Stock Exchange returning to the circle of developed markets opens up, which could significantly widen the circle of investors.”

“SYRIZA risks returning to 5%”

Ahead of the second election on June 25, the German edition of Le Monde diplomatique refers to the “shocking” result of the first election, as it describes it, commenting in particular on the attitude of SYRIZA and Alexis Tsipras: “Two hours after the closing of the ballot box, Tsipras landed from seventh heaven to harsh reality, and his political opponents derided the “worst opposition ever” and the “unique case of a political leader who is not only deluded by his own predictions, but even lives in a different reality”.

[…] Now, what SYRIZA wants to achieve on June 25 is not only to reduce the difference with ND, which is quite unlikely, but also to keep PASOK at a distance, which seems equally difficult. […] Here comes an unpleasant truth, which Tsipras and SYRIZA have kept quiet for a long time: the rise of SYRIZA was based on a solid base of PASOK voters, who made up 2/3 of its followers. In case of success of PASOK, which has now taken back a part of this electorate and of course wants the rest, SYRIZA will shrink again to the 5% it was before the start of the crisis”.

Le Monde diplomatique also points out that “before the elections, SYRIZA hardly mentioned its “positive” program, that is, its economic and social proposals. On the contrary, he focused on the “negative”, i.e. the list of scandals in which Mitsotakis and ND have indulged in the last four years. […] Almost all of the items on this negative list are real scandals, but they don’t matter to the electorate. Besides, the “balance sheet” of the scandals now has a limited impact, since SYRIZA, as the ruling party during 2015-2019, is considered by many to be part of the “system” that constantly causes new disasters.

[…] Mitsotakis’ magic recipe was, after all, “Stability or Chaos”, but it was Tsipras’s unrealistic proposals that gave this slogan its almost absolute persuasiveness. […] The determining factor was rather psychological, i.e. irrational: the need for a large part of Greek society to return to some kind of “normalcy” after the end of the “cycle of state bankruptcy”. But normality can now be different, perhaps even pretentious. Many people are willing to believe the narrative that economic conditions are improving again, […] even though the purchasing power is one of the lowest in the eurozone. And all of this is garnished with the neoliberal narrative that everything will eventually get better because the government will attract foreign investment with its neoliberal economic policies.”