2009 European Parliament election in Greece

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22 seats in the European Parliament
Majority party Minority party Third party   Leader George Papandreou Kostas Karamanlis Aleka Papariga Party PASOK ND KKE Alliance S&D EPP GUE/NGL Last election 34.03%, 8 seats 43.01%, 11 seats 9.48%, 3 seats Seats won 8 8 2 Seat change 3 1 Popular vote 1,879,229 1,656,085 428,151 Percentage 36.65% 32.30% 8.35% Swing 2.62pp 10.71pp 1.13pp   Fourth party Fifth party Sixth party   Leader Georgios Karatzaferis Alexis Tsipras 6-member committee Party LAOS Syriza OP Alliance EFD GUE/NGL Greens/EFA Last election 4.12%, 1 seat 4.16%, 1 seat 0.67%, 0 seats Seats won 2 1 1 Seat change 1 1 Popular vote 366,616 240,971 178,960 Percentage 7.15% 4.70% 3.49 Swing 3.03pp 0.54pp 2.82pp

European Parliament elections were held in Greece on 7 June 2009 to elect the 22 Greek members of the European Parliament. Members were elected by party-list proportional representation with a 3% electoral threshold. The number of seats allocated to Greece was reduced from 24 to 22, as a result of new member states joining the European Union (EU). Consistent with EU-wide rules, Greek citizens resident in another of the 26-member states were permitted to vote in the place where they currently reside.

Participating parties

On 24 May, the Greek Court of Cassation, the country's supreme court, accepted the applications of 27 of the 33 parties which applied to contest the elections. It banned six parties from participating:

• Alternative Ecologists
• Party of Responsible Citizenship
• Dimokratiki
• Party of Uprising Pensioners of Greece
• Panagriarian Workers Movement
• Political Greek-European Animal-Loving Movement
• Animal-Loving Ecologists of Greece

In addition, the court ruled that the following parties could not participate as part of the Coalition of the Radical Left:

• Democratic Social Movement
• Movement of Active Citizens
• Movement for the United in Action Left
• Kokkino
• Xekinima
• Ecosocialists of Greece
• ROZA

A judicial dispute ensued, when Drassi filed a petition before the Council of State to annul the ministerial decision, through which the time for political advertising spots on the radio and television would be allocated, since it disproportionately favoured established parties. A preliminary ruling sent the dispute to the Council of State's plenary session, which will hear the petition for annulment on 25 September 2009.

Opinion polls

Results

Party		Votes	%	Seats	+/–
	PASOK	1,879,229	36.65	8	0
	New Democracy	1,656,085	32.30	8	–3
	Communist Party of Greece	428,151	8.35	2	–1
	Popular Orthodox Rally	366,616	7.15	2	+1
	Syriza	240,971	4.70	1	0
	Ecologist Greens	178,960	3.49	1	+1
	Panhellenic Macedonian Front	65,141	1.27	0	New
	Party of Greek Hunters	64,824	1.26	0	New
	Drassi	38,908	0.76	0	New
	Ecologists of Greece	33,292	0.65	0	New
	Greek Ecologists	31,165	0.61	0	0
	Golden Dawn	23,609	0.46	0	New
	Antarsya	21,988	0.43	0	0
	Union of Centrists	19,686	0.38	0	0
	Marxist–Leninist Communist Party of Greece	13,138	0.26	0	0
	Popular Unions of Bipartisan Social Groups	10,488	0.20	0	New
	Society – Political Party of the Successors of Kapodistrias	7,934	0.15	0	New
	Hellenic Direct Democracy Movement	7,928	0.15	0	New
	Liberal Party–Libertas.eu	6,489	0.13	0	New
	Youth Party	6,205	0.12	0	New
	Workers Revolutionary Party	6,042	0.12	0	New
	Fighting Socialist Party of Greece	5,618	0.11	0	0
	European Free Alliance–Rainbow	4,512	0.09	0	0
	Liberal Alliance	4,319	0.08	0	New
	Greek Unity	3,001	0.06	0	New
	Organization for the Reconstruction of the Communist Party of Greece	2,797	0.05	0	0
	Patriotic Humanitarian Movement	800	0.02	0	New
Total		5,127,896	100.00	22	–2
Valid votes		5,127,896	97.46
Invalid/blank votes		133,853	2.54
Total votes		5,261,749	100.00
Registered voters/turnout		10,014,795	52.54
Source: Ministry of the Interior