2022 Piraean general election

2022 Piraean general election

12 September 2022
All 125 seats to the Piraean Senate 61 seats needed for a majority
Party Leader Current seats Piraese Socialist Workers Union To be voted 36 People's Party Georgios Konstantinou 25 Democrats Anna Theodoropoulou 20 Green Alternative Maria Diomidis 12 Piraese Section of the Workers' International Ioannis Banakis 10 Change Elena Theofili 6 Humanist Centre Demetra Athanalli 5 Independent Regionalist Union Giorgos Dimitriakis 4 Homeland Party Alexandros Poulos 4 Novalian People's Party Miro Kovač 3
Most voted-for party by constituency in Piraea proper
Incumbent Premier Stamatios Panopoulos PSEE

The 2022 Piraean general election are scheduled to take place during 12 September 2022 and will vote a new Piraean Senate and the person who, after gaining the confidence, will hold the office of the Piraea for the next four years. These will be the 14th elections to take place in Piraea since the return of democracy.

Elections were announced by the Chairwoman of the Presidency, Stella Davakis, after she was informed by the then Premier, Stamatios Panopoulos, to call elections after having served a full term. The campaign period is predicted to see a stronger position Georgios Konstantinou, leader of the People's Party, who positioned himself as the best alternative to the centre-left coalition that governed until then, in an effort to find adepts from a growing Democrats. In the government, the PSEE has yet to held internal elections with different prominent figures in order to vote a successor of Stamatios Panopoulos, who is considered a strong name for the Presidency.

Overview

Politics of Piraea

General elections in Piraea serve to vote the composition of the unicameral Piraean Senate, which is formed by 125 members elected by the population and tasked to elect a Head of Government. Aftr seats are allocated to each party using the Saint-Lague method, the members of the Presidency initiate talks with the leaders of every represented party in order to appoint the person that, according to them, has the capacity to gain the declared confidence of the members of the Senate; in the practise, the Presidency always appoints the leader of the party that received most votes, and it is this person that, through coalitions or negotiations, must achieve the formation of a government. In case the leader does not achieve a successful investiture —that is, not gaining the majority of 61 votes— the Presidency can allow a second party to propose another leader or convene new elections in a term no longer than two months.

Voters in Piraea have the choice between specific candidates inside a party when there are internal elections or vote for the party of their choice during general elections, absentee votes are those in which the voter specified no option and the vote is equally distributed among all parties. There is no law against independent candidates, but as of 2022, there are none registered. The electoral system of Piraea does not enforce an election threshold.

Election date

The date of the current election was agreed by the Premier Panopoulos and Stella Davakis, Chairwoman of the Presidency. Dates are often set having in consideration the internal processes of all parties aiming to dispute the election. The Piraean law does not specify dates for electoral processes, but these tend to be announced with anticipation by the Head of Government. During the midday of the 26th of January, the two highest political figures of Piraea announced that the date was the 12th September, with the law that enables such day having passed the same day during an extraordinary Senate session.

Background

Leadership changes

Piraese Section of the Workers' International

Ioannis Banakis (left) and Stamatia Hondraki (right) were voted to form a collective leadership by members of the Piraese Section in order to face the next general elections.

In April, the Piraese Section of the Workers' International (PTED) celebrated a nationwide congress in order to craft the programmatic lines of the national election. Rumours of the withdrawal of Ioannis Banakis as secretary-general of the section had been spread by media for some weeks prior to the celebration of the congress; in addition, the figure of the Minister of Culture, Sports and Youth, Stamatia Hondraki, had been seen as a possible replacement of Banakis.

During the congress, Banakis announced his decision of sharing the office of the secretary-general of the Section, something that several media outlets also rumoured days before the celebration. Party electors voted, during the 17th of April, to face national elections with a collective leadership, formed by Banakis and Hondraki.

Piraese Socialist Workers Union

Stefania Koura (left) and Christoforos Argyras (right) are the candidates during the socialist primary.

The PSEE was the only party that needed a primary election to choose a new leadership, after the resignation of Stamatios Panopoulos who was considered a strong name for the Presidential elections to happen next year. The 12th of May, the ministers of Economy and Public Function, Christoforos Argyras, and Employment and Social Security, Stefania Koura, resigned to their posts in the government. The socialist election is set to occur next 4th and 5th June 2022.

Candidate		Votes	%
	Christoforos Argyras	–	–
	Stefania Koura	–	–
Blank/Invalid ballots		–	–
Turnout		–	–
Source: No source yet

Opinion polls

Polling firm/Commissioner	Fieldwork date	Sample size	Turnout											Lead
Pulse/O Kosmos	6-19 March 2022	2000	?	25,2	26,1	9,7	10,1	12,8	3,7	3,2	4,1	2,1	3	0,9
Metroscopia/Dimokratia	1-15 March 2022	1250	?	24	27,1	10.8	11,8	10,1	4	3,2	3	3	3	3,1
Metroscopia/Dimokratia	15-22 February 2022	1500	?	24,8	26,4	13	12,4	9,8	4	3,2	3,4	1	2	1,6
Pulse/O Kosmos	14-31 January 2022	1200	?	25	26,2	14,5	11,5	10,6	4	3,2	2,4	1,4	1,2	1,2
Pulse/O Kosmos	17–23 January 2022	1200	?	26.2	23.3	15.4	12.8	10.1	5	3.2	1.4	1.4	1.2	2.9

Campaign period

Prior to the official campaign period

The decision of ending the legislature in September was considered controversial by several newspapers and politicians in Piraea. Initially, People's Party MSs criticised the decision of announcing the elections in February when these were going to take place in September, and accused the Premier Stamatios Panopoulos of using the celebration of the Euclovision Song Contest 2022 in Alikianos with electoral purposes. Due to this, the non-official campaign period extended through half of the year, with several topics occupying headlines in newspapers and other media outlets.

Apostolou 81 fire

In the night of the 31st of January, a fire started in the Apostolou 81 building located in the financial centre of Alikianos, causing its complete destruction. The fire lasted through several days, forcing the closure of central district for several days and the offices surrounding it for a week. The fire rapidly became a concerning issue in the political circles of Piraea, igniting the denounce of right and far-right groups in the People's Party and Homeland accusing Lemovician terrorists of being behind the cause of the fire. The reason behind this was the boycott announced by Lemovician far-left groups of the Alikianos edition of Euclovision.

The theory was, however, dismissed rapidly, owing the fire to an electrical fault.

Participating parties

Candidacy		Leading candidate		Ideology	Previous result		Gov.
					Votes (%)	Seats
		To be voted	—	Progressivism Social democracy Secularism Pro-Eucleanism	—	36	Y
			Georgios Konstantinou	Liberal conservatism Economic liberalism Christian democracy	—	25
			Anna Theodoropoulou	Economic liberalism Social liberalism Centrism Pro-Eucleanism	—	20
			Maria Diomidis	Progressivism Green politics Democratic socialism Pro-Eucleanism	—	12	Y
			Ioannis Banakis Stamatia Hondraki	Socialism Social democracy Democratic socialism Councilism	—	10	Y
			Elena Theofili	Centrist politics Anti-corruption Third option Pro-Eucleanism	—	6
			Demetra Athanalli	Centrist politics Humanism Social liberalism Liberalism Pro-Eucleanism	—	5	Y
			Giorgos Dimitriakis	Regionalism Federalism Environmentalism Pro-Eucleanism	—	4	Y
			Alexandros Poulos	Religious conservatism Nationalism Eucloscepticism Right-wing populism	—	4
			Miro Kovač	Big-Tent Minority interests Novalian interests Populism	—	3