In the presidential palace its president attended SW Kyriakos Mitsotakis to be assigned by the President of the Republic, Katerina Sakellaropoulou, exploratory mandate to form a governmentafter the sweeping victory which his party succeeded yesterday with 40.79% and 146 seats.

“I consider it my duty to get over the hurdle of simple proportionality as quickly as possible, and I intend to return the investigative mandate to you this afternoon so that we can have an election, possibly also on June 25»emphasized, among other things, Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis in his meeting with the President of the Republic Katerina Sakellaropoulou during which he received the first exploratory mandate to form a government after yesterday’s elections.

The prime minister underlined that the country needs a strong government with a four-year term as soon as possible and insisted that “the best thing for the country is to discuss the real problems, how we will increase wages and how we will support the welfare state, but also talk on the challenges and issues concerning the new generation”.

Mr. Mitsotakis characterized yesterday’s election result as a promotional step towards maturity, while he reiterated that from the result of the ballot box it is clear that there is no condition for the formation of a government by the present Parliament.

The President of the Republic said while welcoming Mr. Mitsotakis to the Presidential Palace that a while ago the President of the Parliament handed her the official election results and that she called the Prime Minister to hand him the first exploratory mandate to form a government.

The full dialogue between the President of the Republic and the Prime Minister follows:

Katerina Sakellaropoulou: Mr. President, a little while ago the President of the Parliament, Mr. Tasoulas, announced to me the results of the May 21 elections. Following this I called you, as the leader of the party that voted the majority in this regard, to provide you with the exploratory mandate to form a government, in accordance with Article 37 paragraph 2 of the Constitution.

Kyriakos Mitsotakis: Thank you very much, Madam President. I believe that yesterday’s elections were a progressive step towards maturity for our democracy. I consider as a very positive development the fact that participation increased in relation to the 2019 elections, the fact that, despite the restrictions, our fellow citizens who live permanently abroad voted for the first time, the results were issued in record time and of course I believe that the message of the ballot box was in turn absolutely clear.

I believe that there is essentially no condition for the formation of a government by the present Parliament and I certainly want to point out that, if the electoral system that will apply in the next elections was in effect yesterday, the New Democracy would already have a strong parliamentary majority that would exceed 170 seats. So I consider it my duty to contribute so that we can overcome as quickly as possible this obstacle, as it has finally been proven in practice, of simple proportionality.

That is why I intend to return the exploratory mandate to you this afternoon, so that we can lead to new elections, if my prediction that it is impossible to form a government is confirmed, as soon as possible, possibly on June 25, if we manage to shorten the constitutionally prescribed deadlines.

I believe that today the country needs a strong and stable government with a four-year perspective and the sooner this pending issue is closed the better it will be for the country.

I wish and hope that in this second pre-election period we will discuss a little more about the real problems of Greek society, about how we will increase wages, how we will create more jobs, how we will support the welfare state. Let’s talk more about major challenges that were practically completely absent from the political dialogue of the previous elections, such as artificial intelligence, climate change. I think that these are issues that primarily affect the new generation. I look forward to a substantial and fruitful pre-election period, so that the Greek people can finally decide what kind of government they want to go with in the next four years.

Katerina Sakellaropoulou: Mr. President, I think the Constitution is clear and the conditions so far, the pre-election period and the conduct of the elections, have shown that we all respect the rules. I am sure that everyone will contribute, each one from his side, by following the prescribed procedures of course, to reach the best result for the place as quickly as possible.