2023 Piraean regional elections

2023 Piraean regional elections

9 July 2023
195 seats in the regional parliaments of Foinikas, Sitia, Lampi and Souda Riviera
Registered	4,474,936
Regional administrations after the 2020 regional elections      PSEE-led government      LK-led government           PSEE-YLE-coalition government                PSEE-YLE-APE-coalition government

Regional elections will be held in Piraea to elect 195 seats in the regional parliaments of 4 regions —Foinikas, Sitia, Lampi and Souda Riviera—, which will conclude with the election of new Minister-Presidents. They will be held simultaneously with the local elections in cities and provinces.

Electoral date

The election day might vary in every region of Piraea, as in some cases, Minister-Presidents might dissolve the regional legislature to serve a new four year-term. This is the case of Samariá, which held elections in 2020 inaugurating a completely new set of four years. In Foinikas, Sitia, Lampi and Souda Riviera, the date must follow the rule of the second Sunday of July.

Campaign

General Council of the Judiciary deadlock

During the final months of 2022, the Minister of Justice, Christoforos Kostopoulos-Kolokotronis, expressed the government's concern for the expiral date of several members of the General Council of the Judiciary, setting a date to produce an agreement with the PSEE that could renovate the mandates. However, during the first months of 2023, the inability of the People's Party and the PSEE to dialogue, elevated the tensions between the two forces.

Following the election of the Presidency of Piraea —in which the PSEE was not able to reach the votes for its candidates in the Senate—, a number of socialist members of the senate grouped together to ask the dismissal of Eleftheria Rodiales from the General Secretary of the party. A month later, the party chose the former Minister of Infrastructure during the Panopoulos government, Antonis Moustakopoulos, to succeed Rodiales amid record lows in opinion polls.

In March, the situation of the magistrature covered headlines once again, after a number of negotiations between the two parties failed and the conservative magistrate Romulos Kapos-Tanou renounced to his position denouncing a lack of credibility in the institution and the harm of the deadlock. The People's Party accused the opposition from blocking a crucial institution, while the PSEE considered the LK conditions for renovation unfavourable for state of law adding that the conservative party was changing judges to their own benefit. The crisis forced the Presidency to mediate between the two, and draft a possible route map to elect the new members of the magistrature as well as change the law through which judges get to be chosen.

Electoral campaign

A PSEE rally in Kissamos, Souda Riviera.

In the period prior to the beginning of the official campaign, political parties and government started sending their messages to their possible electorates and the polarisation of national politics was introduced into the regional sphere. The pre-campaign period was marked, not only by the judicial deadlock, but also by the consolidation of the People's Party post-Percederation, reaffirming the results of the 2022 general election; this hurt the rest of the centre-right, affecting mostly Democrats, which is in a process of considering merging with the People's Party in a number of regions.

A start of campaign rally led by Ignatios Anthou-Pavlides, candidate in the Souda Riviera.

The electoral campaign started with an internal crisis in the far-right party Homeland, leading to the formation of Force Piraea by a number of former Homeland Members of the Senate. During the start of the campaign, the 2023 Weranian federal election was seen as an important factor of change for the People's Party, as its outcome could define the future of Piraea's accession to the Euclean Community; at the same time, Konstantinou government's received internal pressure from sectors of the party, after former premier Evangelos Polakis supported the party's candidate in Sitia, Eliza Andreadoglou, in a rally that counted with numerous critics to the current premier. Following Werania's election, the newspaper I Naftemporiki revealed that the government considered holding a snap election in the upcoming months after the regional elections take place, in order to get closer to the absolute majority in the Piraean Senate. The government finally revealed the decision, considering the deadlock in the justice and the need to pass extensive policy in order to cope with EC deadlines.

The decision to hold a snap election has been criticised by the centre-left and sectors to the centre of the People's Party, for being favourable to the People's Party, taking the campaign period to cover numerous issues that were far from the regional sphere. During 5 July, an investigation led by the Piraean National Commission for Human Rights in the 9th division of the Army, found human remains of what could be a forced disappearance from the Second Piraean Republic. The campaign was suspended by the executive and the rest of political parties.

Regional governments

Region	Current control		New control
9 July
Foinikas		People's Party (LK)
Souda Riviera		Piraese Socialist Workers Union (PSEE)
Sitia		Piraese Socialist Workers Union (PSEE)
Lampi		Independent Regionalist Union (APE)
Do not vote
Samariá		Green Alternative (PEL)

Participating parties

Candidacy		Leading candidates Foinikas, Lampi, Sitia, Souda Riviera				Ideology	Previous result		Gov.
							Votes (%)	Seats
						Liberal conservatism Economic liberalism Christian democracy	—	—	Y
						Progressivism Social democracy Secularism Pro-Eucleanism	—	—	Y Y Y
						Progressivism Green politics Democratic socialism Socialism Councilism (factions) Pro-Eucleanism	—	—	Y
						Centrist politics Humanism Social liberalism Liberalism Pro-Eucleanism	—	—
						Regionalism Federalism Environmentalism Pro-Eucleanism	—	—	Y
						Centrist politics Anti-corruption Third option Pro-Eucleanism	—	—
						Economic liberalism Social liberalism Centrism Pro-Eucleanism	—	—
						Sotirian Democracy Big-Tent Minority interests Novalian interests Populism	—	—	Y
						Right-wing populism Social conservatism Nationalism	—	—