ATHENS: Two former prime ministers from opposing ends of Greece's political spectrum are vying for a new term in Sunday's national elections.
Conservative front-runner Kyriakos Mitsotakis is projected to win comfortably, but his left-wing rival Alexis Tsipras is hoping to deprive him of an absolute majority.
Here is a look at the two main players in the vote:
The scion
Mitsotakis, 55, is seeking a second four-year term as prime minister on the strength of his record of economic growth, budget management and a robust foreign policy that includes a pair of key alliance deals with the United States and France.
“All the gains we have made must be consolidated and continued,“ he said at his final rally before a ban on campaigning imposed from Saturday.
A Harvard graduate and former McKinsey consultant, Mitsotakis has warned that the country needs a “stable government” amid the war in Ukraine and other challenges.
A scion of a Greek political dynasty dating to the late 19th century, Mitsotakis has long struggled to shake off his elitist image.
His father, Konstantine Mitsotakis, was also prime minister three decades ago. His sister is Dora Bakoyannis, a former foreign minister and the first woman elected mayor of Athens. The current Athens mayor, Kostas Bakoyannis, is her son and Mitsotakis's nephew.
Leader of the conservative New Democracy party since 2016, Mitsotakis is married to Mareva Grabowski, an entrepreneur who co-founded the Zeus+Dione luxury clothing brand. They have three children.
The ex-radical
Tsipras, who was prime minister from 2015 to 2019, some of the rockiest years of Greece's financial crisis, is asking voters for a second chance to show what his labour-friendly Syriza party can truly do without the austerity shackles of EU-IMF supervision.
With high inflation a key issue weighing on voters' minds, Tsipras has campaigned for wage hikes.
He has also warned against giving Mitsotakis a “blank cheque” to carry out a “hidden agenda” of policies that would unwind social welfare gains.
But his bid has so far failed to gain momentum, and he remains for many Greeks the anti-austerity radical who as prime minister took on the country's creditors and nearly crashed Greece out of the euro, before reversing course and accepting a third bailout by international creditors.
Greece ultimately exited its austerity constraints on Tsipras's watch in 2018, and he has since pulled his party towards the centre to broaden its appeal.
The former Communist is also credited with untangling a 28-year diplomatic dispute with Greece's northern neighbour, now called North Macedonia, in a landmark deal opposed by nationalists in both countries, including Mitsotakis.
Tsipras first appeared on the Greek political scene in the early 1990s when he was just 16, as an organiser of school sit-ins, sporting an Elvis-style ducktail.
The prime minister whose education policies he was challenging at that time was Mitsotakis's father.
Tsipras rapidly rose through the ranks of his party, then called Synaspismos, after being handpicked as a fresh face to run for Athens mayor in 2006. Two years later, he was elected party leader.
Having already lost four electoral contests to Mitsotakis, a fifth defeat on Sunday could end up costing Tsipras his top job at his Syriza party.
He has two children with his high-school sweetheart Betty Baziana, an electronics engineer. - AFP
