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.

The campaign period saw a number of controversies from the opposition, which claimed an excessive frametime between the announcement of the elections date and the actual date. Given this, the un-official campaign period extended through half of the year, with most important issues in Piraea acquiring a political connotation and being influenced by the electoral voices. One of the biggest surprises during this period was the historical rise in voting intention of the Piraese Section of the Workers' International, which became the third largest political party in several polls after the month of incidents in Etruria. During April, several polls closed numbers giving the People's Party a slight difference that put it ahead the PSEE, which was seen with an eroded voters base and heavily linked with a stagnant economic performance. The integration with the Euclean Community was a decisive point of political consensus uniting both centre-right and centre-left, with the extremes in the PTED and Homeland often attracting views against the influence of Kesselbourg.

Overview

Politics of Piraea

During general elections, Piraeans vote the composition of the unicameral Piraean Senate, composed by 125 members, which must handle confidence to the leader of most voted party or the candidate proposed by the Presidency. Seats in the legislature are allocated using the Saint-Lague method and after members are granted their place, the collective Head of State initiate talks with the leaders of every party with representation, in order to appoint the person that, according to what is communicated, has the capacity to gain a declared confidence (Piraese: δεδηλωμένη, tr. dedilomeni). In practise, the Presidency 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. The candidate must go through an investiture debate, in which the political platform is detailed, and the rest of the legislature decides to grant or not the confidence.

Candidates to the Premiership must achieve a majority (that is, 61 out of 125 votes), and if it is not possible, the Presidency can enable a second investiture debate in no less than a week during which the candidate must achieve a simple majority (more positive votes than negatives) to enable a minority government. If the candidate fails, the Presidency can select another candidate 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.

Primary elections

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

Change

A gradual fall in voting intention during the first months of 2022 forced a change in the leadership of the youngest political party with representation in the Senate. Elena Theofili, who led Change since its creation, announced during the Monday 18th of April the decision to step down and call the party delegates to a primary election in order to decide the future leader of the party.

The congress is scheduled to be celebrated next Friday 13th of May, and will see the competition of the current spokesperson in the Senate, Eleftherios Kontoglou, the journalist Filippos Tassopoulos and the prominent MS Lisa Remea.

Candidate		Votes	%
	Eleftherios Kontoglou	–	–
	Filippos Tassopoulos	–	–
	Lisa Remea	–	–
Blank/Invalid ballots		–	–
Turnout		–	–
Source: No source yet

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. Stamatia presented her resignation letter to the Premier the next Monday after being elected; it was approved by Panopoulos, who congratulated her and highlighted her time in the cabinet.

Campaign

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.

Riots in Etruria

During February 2022, left groups in Etruria led protests against a judicial reform presented by the Tribune Executive. The government rapidly responded with what the opposition considered a violent rhetoric that could force violence to erupt in the streets. Francesco Carcaterra led the attacks against the Etrurian Subsection, which was denounced by the President of Etruria of money laundering and human trafficking, although without evidence. The day following to Carcaterra's speech, the Etrurian far-right group La Citadella, took the streets in support of the government, with several clashes with Section members being registered throughout the day; in the night of the 3th of February, members of the group surrounded an Arthasthani restaurant in Carcaforo and several members set the building in fire. The incident was categorised as a terrorist attack and firefighters registered the death of one person, Shreya Pati.

The incident was condemned by most of the political spectrum in Etruria, Piraea and Euclea. In Alikianos, several protestors took the streets and a vigil was done in front of the Arthastani consulate in the city. Politically, the Piraean Senate voted almost unanimously the creation of a special commission to investigate far-right groups in Piraea. The incident is believed to have had an impact in voting intentions in Piraea, causing the increase in the share of the Piraean Section of the Workers' International, which became the third largest force according to several polls.

Rising inflation

One of the topics that has caused much controversy in the period prior to the campaign has been the rising inflation numbers, fueled mostly by the intermittency of oil supplies in refineries South Euclea. During April, inflation in Piraea spiked and reached 7.1%, one of the highest numbers in the region, forcing the creation of a special cabinet to reach agreements between political sectors and other Euclean nations affected by the supply of Tsabaran oil.

Inflation and rising living costs became a an axis of the opposition to criticise economic policy, denouncing a lack of austerity and clear moves to support small businesses. Opposition leader, Georgios Konstantinou, expressed his concern over the decision to increase the minimum salary, saying that the movement is "irresponsible" and puts employers and employees against each other. During April, the leader of the People's Party presented a temporal fiscal reform, which contemplated the reduction of Personal Income Taxes and VAT.

Opinion polls

Polling firm/Commissioner	Fieldwork date	Sample size	Turnout											Lead
Computos/I Naftemporiki	April 2022	2500	?	24.6	27.6	9.3	9.8	10.1	3.2	4.1	4.2	3	4.1	3
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

Participating parties

See also: List of political parties in Piraea

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
		To be voted	—	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