A view of the Greek Parliament, in Athens, on June 24, 2023. [Michael Varaklas/AP]
These are the kinds of in-between relationships that lack commitment, depth, and plans for the future. They exist in the space between friendship or casual dating and a committed relationship – one that avoids the question, “what are we?” The “situationship,” a trend among Gen Z and Millennials, largely describes the connection voters have with political parties today.
The legendary 41% won by New Democracy – more precisely by Kyriakos Mitsotakis – in the 2023 elections amounted to 2,115,322 votes out of a total of 5.2 million citizens who went to the polls. Is that a large number? Certainly not a social majority, with abstention at 47.17%, surpassing the previous record set in the September 2015 elections (43.84%).
The electorate is shrinking. In the 2009 elections, PASOK won with 43.92% and 3,012,373 votes. There were even stronger showings in earlier years – for example, in 2004, when New Democracy secured 3,359,682 votes out of a total of 7,573,368 voters.
The nearly 2.3 million voters lost over these two decades are highly unlikely – if not impossible – to return to the electoral process. As a result, the “gurus” of electoral strategy focus on those who remain, seeking out those more open to a meaningful commitment.
In 2023, the most consistent voters were diaspora Greeks, with an abstention rate of just 30.67%. They were followed by voters in the northern sector of Athens, where the standard of living is generally high.
Young people tend to abstain more, although they are relatively few in number (438,595 voters aged 17-21 in the most recent elections). In 2019, youth participation (ages 17-24) was around 25%, according to the Research Institute of the University of Macedonia. For this reason, the most electorally significant group is retirees, who number over 2.5 million according to the latest data. More than 21% of the population is aged 65 and over, and the 80+ group has doubled. Public sector employees (736,000 people) are also considered relatively stable voters.
Because election outcomes are determined by those who actually turn out, because older voters participate at higher rates, and because a parliamentary majority can be achieved with well under 2 million votes, the next electoral contest will hinge on how effectively each party mobilizes its base.
For example, if Maria Karystianou – the former head of the Tempe railway crash victims’ association, who is expected to run in the next elections – manages to get people off their couches, she could pull off a surprise. Likewise, whichever of the parties appealing (also) to the center – New Democracy, PASOK, or the party expected to be formed by former prime minister Alexis Tsipras – manages to capitalize on the “situationship” dynamic could defy expectations, if not in the first election, then at least in a second round.
But even a loose, here-and-now relationship requires a degree of inspiration – not just fear of loneliness or transactional motives – and that may prove difficult to generate.