2023 Athens municipal election

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2023 Athens municipal elections
Flag of Greece.svg
 20198 October 2023 (2023-10-08)
(First Round)
15 October 2023 (2023-10-15)
(Second Round)
2028 
Registered449,902
Turnout32.32% (First Round)
26.73% (Second Round)
 Majority partyMinority partyThird party
  Khares Doukas 2024-03-07 7535 (cropped).jpg Kostas Mpakogiannes 2022.JPG Kostas Zakhariades - Politistike-politike ekdelose tou SURIZA Notias Athenas - YouTube.png
Candidate Haris Doukas Kostas Bakoyiannis Kostas Zachariadis
Party PASOK, Volt, Syriza [a] ND Syriza
Alliance Athina Tora
(Athens Now)
Athina Psila
(Athens High Up)
Anoixti Poli
(Open City)
Seats won2683
Seat changeIncrease2.svg 20Decrease2.svg 13Decrease2.svg 5
First round19,842
14.19%
57,802
41.35%
18,668
13.35%
Second round64,062
55.97%
50,397
44.03%
Eliminated

 Fourth partyFifth partySixth party
  KEDEIA KOSTA MARAGKOUDAKE - NIKOS SOPhIANOS.jpg Ilias Kasidiaris a Mar 21016 (cropped).jpg
Ant
CandidateNikolaos Sofianos Ilias Kasidiaris Kostas Papadakis
Party KKE National Party – Greeks, Spartiates Antarsya, MeRA25
Alliance Laiki Syspeirosi Athinas
(Popular Athenian Coalition)
Eleftheroi Athineoi
(Free Athenians)
Anatreptiki Symmahia gia tin Athina
(Subversive Alliance for Athens)
Seats won221
Seat changeDecrease2.svg 2Decrease2.svg 31 Decrease2.svg [b]
Popular vote18,00211,6438.515
Percentage12.88%8.33%6.09%
Second roundEliminatedEliminatedEliminated

 Seventh party
 
Ind
CandidateEleni Papadopoulou
Party Independent
Alliance I Athina Mas
(Our Athens)
Seats won1
Seat change1 Increase2.svg
Popular vote5.311
Percentage3.80%
Second roundEliminated

2023 First Round of Athens municipal elections map.svg
Results by Municipal Community in the First Round

2023 Second Round of Athens municipal elections map.svg
Map of the Second Round per municipal community, showing the difference between the first and second candidates

Mayor before election

Kostas Bakoyiannis
ND

Elected Mayor

Haris Doukas
PASOK

The 2023 Athens Municipal election was held on 8 October and 15 October 2023 to elect the mayor of Athens as a part of the 2023 Greek Local elections. The first round was inconclusive, and a second round run-off took place a week later, between the two candidates having the most votes, the incumbent Kostas Bakoyannis from conservative New Democracy (ND) party and Haris Doukas from social democratic PASOK party.

Contents

In the second round, PASOK candidate Haris Doukas defeated the incumbent Kostas Bakoyiannis. This victory was achieved with the unified backing of Syriza, Volt, the Pirate Party, and other green parties. As a result, Doukas secured an absolute 3/5 majority in the municipal council under the new electoral law. [1] [2] [3] [4]

Background

Previous Election

In the previous election incumbent PASOK list, with its former candidate not running, was defeated by challenger Bakoyannis winning 21 out of the 49 seats, with Syriza candidate Nasos Iliopoulos coming second being defeated in the second round with ND candidate being ahead with an over 40 point margin, yet this being with the previous electoral law Bakoyannis failed to achieve a full majority in the council. Other smaller candidates also picked up seats, such as Pavlos Geroulanos of PASOK, managing to elect eight seats, Golden Dawn candidate and former spokesman Ilias Kasidiaris electing five, and communist KKE candidate Nikos Sofianos electing four, other more minor lists took up one or fewer seats each. [5]

2019 Athens municipal election result
ListSeats1st round
Vote share (%)
2nd round
Vote share (%)
Athina Psila 2142.6565.25
Anihti Poli 816.9824.75
Athina eisai Esy 613.19
Elliniki Avgi gia tin Athina 510.53
Laiki Syspirosi Athinas 47.47
Athina Gia tin Ellada 12.21
Athina kai pali Athina 12.04
Athina, to spiti mas 11.57
Antarsia Stis Geitonies tis Athinas 11.54
Antikapitalistiki Anatropi - Antarsia stin Athina 10.99
Metopo Anatropis gia tin Athina 00.82

Source: [6]

2021 electoral system

The New Democracy government enacted "Law 4804/2021," [7] [8] which replaced the previous law on local elections. According to the new law, in all municipal elections in Greece, the system used is one of 2-round proportional representation with reinforced proportinality. Specifically, "the distribution of municipal or regional council seats between the successful and runner-up list is done by a system of reinforced proportionality so that the successful combination holds at least 3/5 of the council seats." [7] Also, it also provided the requirements for a list to enter the council, "[...] in order for a list to be entitled to at least one seat on the municipal or district council, it must receive at least 3% of the valid ballots in the first round of elections. The combination that received at least 43% of the valid ballots plus one vote in the first round is declared successful, and its head is elected mayor or regional governor." [7] [9] The law faced backlash with parties on the threshold, including the parties conjoined in Antarsya (New Left Current (NAR), Socialist Workers' Party, Revolutionary Communist Movement of Greece (EKKE), Alternative Ecologists) calling the law undemocratic and that ND was attempting to reinforce their own position by removing simple proportionality. [10]

Candidates

Athens NOW (Athina TORA)

Athens NOW (Greek: Αθήνα ΤΩΡΑ, romanized:Athina TORA) was a municipal list formed in August 2023 based on an environmentalist, anti-tourist ideology with its candidate being PASOK member Haris Doukas. Specifically, Doukas' 5-year goals were to plant 25,000 trees throughout Athens, reduce the temperature in the summer months, reduce noise pollution, and improve the air quality of Athens by 25%. [11] The Athens NOW list surpassed Syriza's candidate and entered the second round, whereby securing the support of Syriza, as well as the support from PASOK, Volt Greece, Pirate Party, and other small Green parties. [11] [12] [3] Doukas, with unified support, defeated incumbent ND affiliate Kostas Bakoyannis and elected 26 councilors. [13] [2] [14]

Athens High Up (Athina Psila)

Athens High Up (Greek: Αθήνα Ψηλά, romanized:Athina Psila) was the incumbent list endorsed by the governing party New Democracy with its candidate being incumbent mayor Kostas Bakoyannis. [15] The list of Athens High Up was defeated by the challenger, Doukas, with a 10-point difference.

Open City (Anoihti Poli)

Open City (Greek: Ανοιχτή Πόλη, romanized:Anoihti Poli) was the list endorsed by the then main opposition party Syriza, its candidate being Kostas Zachariadis who was chosen through a slim margin 17–15 in the political secretary, with other options being basketballer Nikos Pappas. [16] [1] Zachariadis was eliminated in the first round of voting, receiving approximately 13% of the vote. In the second round, Zachariadis endorsed Doukas and his list. [17]

Popular Athenian Coalition (Greek: Λαϊκή Συσπείρωση Αθήνας, romanized:Laiki Syspeirosi Athinas) was the list endorsed by the Communist Party of Greece (KKE) with their candidate Nikolaos Sofianos. [18] The list saw a rise parallel to the one that their party saw in the May and June 2023 parliamentary elections.

Free Athenians (Eleftheroi Athineoi)

Free Athenians (Greek: Ελεύθεροι Αθηναίοι, romanized:Eleftheroi Athineoi) was the list endorsed by National Party – Greeks and the Spartiates party, and used to be endorsed by the now illegal Golden Dawn party. It was led by Ilias Kasidiaris, a convicted felon. [19] The list managed to elect two councilors, including Kasidiaris.

Subversive Alliance for Athens (Anatreptiki Symmahia gia tin Athina)

Subversive alliance for Athens (Greek: Ανατρεπτική Συμμαχία για την Αθήνα, romanized:Anatreptiki Symmahia gia tin Athina) was a list of a coalition of Far-Left Groups that united when ND enacted a new election law that made it mandatory for a list to reach at least 3% to elect a councilor. Uniting behind the lawyer of the Golden Dawn trials Kostas Papadakis, the group was backed by Antarsya and MeRA25. [20] [9] [10] The group reached 6% in the election, electing Kostas Papadakis as its Councilor.

Our Athens (I Athina Mas)

Our Athens (Greek: Η Αθήνα Μας, romanized:I Athina Mas) was the only independent list in the elections with their candidate being Eleni Papadopoulou, the list's beliefs tend to be in line with more right-wing thought with their candidate criticizing pride parades and illegal immigration. [21] [22] The list elected its candidate as councilor with almost 4% of the vote.

Opinion polls

Fieldwork DatePolling firm Doukas Bakoyiannis ZachariadisSofianos Kasidiaris PapadakisPapadopoulouAbstainDK/DAUndecidedLead
15 OctSecond Round Results55.9744.0311.94
13 OctRealpolls [23] 46.435.58.79.410.9
8 OctFirst Round Results14.1941.3513.3512.888.336.093.8027.16
6 OctRealpolls [24] 12.126.310.59.18.46.43.642.916.714.2
32.331.425.910.40.9
35.229.826.18.85.4
3 OctProrata [25] 93814.58.58.515.55.4

Results

Greece Athens Municipal Council 2025.svg
CandidatePartyFirst roundSecond roundSeats+/–
Votes%Votes%
Kostas Bakoyiannis Athens High Up 57,80241.3550,39744.038–13
Haris Doukas Athens Now 19,84214.1964,06255.9726+20
Kostas Zachariadis  [ el ] Open City 18,66813.353–5
Nikolaos Sofianos Popular Athenian Coalition 18,00212.882–2
Ilias Kasidiaris Free Athenians 11,6438.332–3
Kostas Papadakis Subversive Alliance for Athens 8,5156.091–1 [b]
Eleni Papadopoulou Our Athens 5,3113.801New
Total139,783100.00114,459100.0043
Valid votes139,78396.14114,45995.18
Invalid votes3,2772.253,1022.58
Blank votes2,3341.612,7002.25
Total votes145,394100.00120,261100.00
Registered voters/turnout449,90232.32449,90226.73
Source: [26]

Members Elected

Members Elected to Municipal Council
ListFull name
Athens NOWHaris Doukas
Roxani-Evangelia Bei-Karampotsou
Georgios Apostolopoulos
Ioanna (Tzini) Gennimata
Maria Stratigaki
Olga Dourou
Christina Vasileiou
Kalliopi (Popi) Giannopoulou
Zacharoula Agrogianni – Moukriotou
Nikolaos Laliotis
Athanasios Cheimonas
Georgios-Konstantinos Giannaros
Artemis Skoumpourdi
Eleni Zontirou
Vasiliki Barka
Maro Evangelidou
Nikos Chrysogelos
Dimitra Sideri
Thomas Georgiadis
Evangelos Giannopoulos
Mina Fountzoula
Panagiotis – Paris Charlaftis
Elena Mantzavinou
Andreas Grammatikogiannis
Manolis Velegrakis
Despoina Limniotaki
Athens High UpKostas Bakoyannis
Nikolaos Avramidis
Christos Tentomas
Manolis Kalampokas
Alexia Evert Alverti
Georgios Voulgarakis
Katerina Gkagkaki Dimitriadou
Sakis Kollatos
Open CityKostas Zachariadis
Despoina Alevyzaki
Diana Voutyrakou
Popular Athenian CoalitionNikolaos Sofianos
Charis Vourdoumpas
Free AtheniansIlias Kasidiaris
Gianna Betty
Subversive Alliance for AthensKostas Papadakis
Our AthensPapadopoulou Eleni

Source: [14]

Community Results

All seven Municipal Communities were won by Kostas Bakoyannis in the first round (see tables below). However, Haris Doukas won a 3/5 majority due to his victory in the second round, with all other lists getting either one or no seats in every Community Council, based on the new electoral law in all individual councils. [9]

First Municipal Community

ListSeats1st Round2nd Round
Vote share%Vote share%
Athens Now 93,48518.99,43951.9
Athens High Up 37,25939.57,03748.1
Open City 12,31012.5
Popular Athenian Coalition 11,90110.3
Subversive Alliance for Athens 11,5338.3
Free Athenians 01,2096.5
Our Athens 06643.6

Second Municipal Community

ListSeats1st Round2nd Round
Vote share%Vote share%
Athens Now 93,54814.99,98556.7
Athens High Up 39,92541.77,61343.3
Open City 13,25213.6
Popular Athenian Coalition 13,07312.9
Free Athenians 11,8497.7
Subversive Alliance for Athens 01,3055.4
Our Athens 08473.5

Third Municipal Community

ListSeats1st Round2nd Round
Vote share%Vote share%
Athens Now 71,47111.15,84356.1
Athens High Up 25,63442.64,67843.9
Open City 11,90414.4
Popular Athenian Coalition 11,80113.6
Free Athenians 01,1518.7
Subversive Alliance for Athens 07805.9
Our Athens 04703.5

Fourth Municipal Community

ListSeats1st Round2nd Round
Vote share%Vote share%
Athens Now 92,06311.67,79553.0
Athens High Up 37,67143.46,93047.0
Popular Athenian Coalition 12,42113.7
Open City 12,16012.2
Free Athenians 11,91910.8
Subversive Alliance for Athens 07904.4
Our Athens 06203.5

Fifth Municipal Community

ListSeats1st Round2nd Round
Vote share%Vote share%
Athens Now 92,62013.29,56056.2
Athens High Up 28,13941.17,44743.8
Popular Athenian Coalition 12,81114.2
Open City 12,68813.5
Free Athenians 01,6648.4
Subversive Alliance for Athens 01,0765.4
Our Athens 07913.9

Sixth Municipal Community

ListSeats1st Round2nd Round
Vote share%Vote share%
Athens Now 92,94913.78,02155.2
Athens High Up 28,72240.66,50344.8
Open City 12,90313.5
Popular Athenian Coalition 12,63212.2
Free Athenians 12,0069.3
Subversive Alliance for Athens 01,3016.0
Our Athens 09624.4

Seventh Municipal Community

ListSeats1st Round2nd Round
Vote share%Vote share%
Athens Now 93,68814.47,35653.6
Athens High Up 210,45240.96,36846.4
Open City 13,45113.5
Popular Athenian Coalition 13,36313.1
Free Athenians 11,8457.2
Subversive Alliance for Athens 01,7306.7
Our Athens 09753.8

Source: [26] [27]

Note: The results of the second round are not stated for each Community, but they are stated for every polling place. This may be because the seats are distributed independently of how the community voted in the second round and distributed according to the results of the first round and the overall victor of the second round. [26] [28]

Aftermath

Reactions

After the election results, PASOK, having supported Doukas' ecologist list, asserted itself as the second most popular political party nationwide in the local elections. Syriza also congratulated Doukas, as their leader Stefanos Kasselakis endorsed him in the second round. [29] The victory of Doukas attracted nationwide press and media attention. Doukas was the second most popular candidate in the elections in October 2024 for the leadership of PASOK, receiving 40.08%. [30]

Post-Election proposed reforms

After the second round of elections, the New Democracy government raised the possibility of proposing new reforms for local elections. These proposed reforms became known as the "Livanios Plan" [31] and they entail the following: new digital voting and the possibility of by-elections, also removing "crosses," [c] the selective voting of individual councilors of one particular list, the lack of crosses being the same model followed by the state in Parliamentary elections. There was a backlash from opposition parties to the proposed reforms. Syriza's parliamentary group spokesman Nikos Pappas rejected the plan, stating that "this plan [The one proposed by ND] is not steering in this direction," and instead proposed a plan with second choice votes. [31] PASOK's leader Nikos Androulakis exclaimed criticism, stating that ND is undermining local governance, which was described as "fundamental to our democracy." [31]

The resignation of Ilias Kasidiaris

In the results of the election Ilias Kasidiaris' list, two councilors, including himself, were elected. But due to his participation in convicted far-right criminal organization Golden Dawn as chairman, his reelection came under fire from antifascist groups with protests being held against him. Due to legal issues that would disallow him from serving as councilor and complaints from groups such as the members of the list of Kostas Papadakis, Kasidiaris resigned on 1 January 2024, having just taken the position. [32] [33] [34]

Notes

  1. Endorsed in the second round.
  2. 1 2 Back in 2019, the two main parties making up Antarsya, NAR) and SEK backed separate factions, getting 2 seats.
  3. Crosses being the selective voting of individual councilor candidates of one particular list.

References

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