Foundation , founder of New Democracy New Democracy was founded on 4 October 1974 by
Konstantinos Karamanlis, in the beginning of the
metapolitefsi era following the fall of the
Greek junta. Karamanlis, who had already served as
Prime Minister of Greece from 1955 to 1963, was sworn in as the first Prime Minister of the
Third Hellenic Republic in a
national unity government on 24 July 1974, until the first free elections of the new era. He intended New Democracy to be a more modern and progressive political party than the
right-wing parties that ruled
Greece before the
1967 Greek coup d'état, including his own
National Radical Union (ERE). The party's ideology was defined as "
radical liberalism", a term defined as "the prevalence of
free market rules with the decisive intervention of the state in favour of
social justice." The party was formed out of a
National Radical Union core and dissident members of the pre-Junta
Centre Union. It included members of both former Monarchist and Venizelist backgrounds.
First government (1974–1981) In the
1974 legislative election, New Democracy obtained a massive parliamentary majority of 220 seats with a record 54.37% of the vote, a result attributed to the personal appeal of Karamanlis to the electorate. Karamanlis was elected as prime minister and soon decided to hold a
referendum on 8 December 1974 for the issue of the form of government; with a large majority of 69.17%,
monarchy was eventually abolished in favour of a
republic. The next major issue for the New Democracy cabinet was the creation of the
Constitution of Greece, which entered into force in 1975 and established Greece as a
parliamentary republic. On 12 June 1975, Greece applied to join the
European Communities, of which it was already an associate member since 1961, while it had already been readmitted to the
Council of Europe on 28 November 1974. In the
1977 election, New Democracy won again a large parliamentary majority of 171 seats, albeit with a reduced percentage of popular vote (41.84%). Under Karamanlis, Greece redefined its relations with
NATO and tried to resolve the
Cyprus problem following the
Turkish invasion of the island. In 1979, the first conference of the party was held in
Chalkidiki, where its ideological principles defined under the term "radical liberalism" were unanimously approved, as well as its statute and the operating regulations of its organizations. It was the first conference of any
Greek political party whose delegates were elected by the members. led to the signing of the
Treaty of Accession on 28 May 1979 in
Athens; following the ratification of the act by the
Hellenic Parliament on 28 June 1979, Greece became the tenth
member state of the European Communities on 1 January 1981. Karamanlis was criticised by opposing parties for not holding a referendum, even though Greece's accession into the European Communities had been in the forefront of New Democracy's political platform, under which the party had been elected to power.
Georgios Rallis was elected as the new leader of New Democracy and succeeded Karamanlis in premiership.
Opposition and Mitsotakis' rise to power (1981–1989) Under the leadership of Georgios Rallis, New Democracy was defeated in the
1981 legislative elections by
Andreas Papandreou's PASOK which ran on a left-wing progressive platform, and was placed in opposition for a first time with 35.87% share of the vote and 115 seats. On the same day, on 18 October 1981, New Democracy was also defeated in the
first Greek election to the European Parliament. In the following December, the party's parliamentary group elected
Evangelos Averoff, former
Minister for National Defence, as president of New Democracy, but he resigned in 1984 due to health problems. On 1 September 1984,
Konstantinos Mitsotakis succeeded him in the party's presidency and he managed to increase its percentage in the
1985 elections to 40.85%, although it was defeated again and remained in opposition.
Second government (1989–1993) and
Süleyman Demirel (Prime Ministers of Greece and Turkey respectively) in the 1992
World Economic Forum Mitsotakis led New Democracy to a clear win in the
June 1989 legislative elections registering 44.28% of the vote but, due to the modification of the electoral law by the outbound PASOK government, New Democracy obtained only 145 seats which were not enough to form a government on its own. The aftermath was the formation of a
coalition government under
Tzannis Tzannetakis, consisted of New Democracy and
Coalition of the Left and Progress (
Synaspismos), with the latter also including at the time the Communist Party of Greece. In the subsequent
elections of November 1989, New Democracy took one more comfortable win, increasing its share to 46.19% of the vote and 148 seats but, under the same electoral law, they were still short of forming a government and this led to a national unity government along with PASOK and Synaspismos, under
Xenophon Zolotas. Eventually, in the
1990 election Mitsotakis' New Democracy defeated once again Papandreou's PASOK with a lead of 8.28%, but this time the 46.89% of votes awarded them with 150 seats, which allowed Mitsotakis to form a majority in the parliament with the support of
Democratic Renewal's (DIANA) sole
member of parliament and one more seat given by the
Supreme Special Court, after a mistake in seat calculation was detected. After three consecutive wide wins with high vote percentages, Mitsotakis became the 178th Prime Minister of Greece and the 7th Prime Minister of the 3rd Hellenic Republic though with a slim parliamentary majority of 152 seats due to the electoral law in force at the time. In a turbulent international political environment following the
1989 Fall of Communism in
Europe, Mitsotakis' government focused on cutting government spending, the privatization of state enterprises, the reformation of the public administration and the restoration of the original electoral system, with the addition of an
election threshold of 3%. In foreign policy, the priorities were the restoration of confidence among Greece's economic and political partners, NATO and the
United States. Mitsotakis also supported a new dialogue with
Turkey on the
Cyprus dispute and a compromise over the
Macedonia naming dispute; the latter triggered an irritation among the MPs of New Democracy, which led
Antonis Samaras to leave it and form a new political party in June 1993,
Political Spring; one more withdrawal later from its parliamentary group resulted in New Democracy's loss of the majority in the parliament and the call of early elections.
Opposition (1993–2004) In the
1993 elections, New Democracy suffered an easy defeat with 39.30% of the vote, something that led to Mitsotakis' resignation and the election of
Miltiadis Evert in the party's leadership. In the early
1996 legislative election, New Democracy was defeated again by
Costas Simitis' PASOK registering 38.12%, but Evert obtained a re-election as the party's leader in the same year. However, in the spring of 1997 a new conference took place, in order to elect a new president among others.
Kostas Karamanlis, nephew of the party's founder, was elected the sixth president of New Democracy. Under Karamanlis, New Democracy experienced an evident increase in popularity, but in the
2000 elections they lost by only 1.06% of the popular vote, the smallest margin in modern Greek history, registering 42.74% and obtaining 125 seats in the parliament. By 2003, New Democracy was consistently leading Simitis' PASOK in opinion polls; in January 2004 Simitis resigned and announced elections for 7 March, while
George Papandreou succeeded him in PASOK's leadership.
Third government (2004–2009) Despite speculation that Papandreou would succeed in restoring the party's fortunes, in the
2004 election Karamanlis managed to take a clear win with 45.36% of the vote and 165 seats, and New Democracy returned to power after eleven years in opposition, scoring an all-time record of 3,359,682 votes in the history of
Greek elections. The regions that consistently support New Democracy include the
Peloponnese,
Central Macedonia and
West Macedonia. On the other hand, the party is weak in
Crete, the
Aegean Islands,
Attica and
West Greece. In
social policy, the
retirement age was raised from 58 to 60 for those with 35 years of insurance, while early retirement went up from 55 to 60 for those who entered the labor market after 1993.
Supplementary pensions were also cut. In addition, mothers with under-aged children could retire at 55 instead of 50, while
paid maternity leave was extended to 6 months in the private sector. Rising
unemployment and the threat of
inflation undermined Karamanlis' promises to kick-start the economy and sparked
strikes, especially one in 2006 by rubbish collectors, causing severe disruption in the economy. In early 2006, it was revealed that the cellular phone of Kostas Karamanlis, as well as those of several other members of the government and officials of the armed forces, had been
wiretapped for several months during and after the 2004 Athens Olympics. The prime minister came under criticism during the
wildfires of 2007. With hundreds of thousands of acres burning and many deaths, the government had faced growing scrutiny for its response to the fires. giving an interview at a 2008 EPP summit On 16 September 2007,
Kostas Karamanlis won re-election with a diminished majority in
Parliament, and stated: "Thank you for your trust. You have spoken loud and clear and chosen the course the country will take in the next few years."
George Papandreou, PASOK, accepted defeat (New Democracy party with 41.87%, and opposition party PASOK had 38.1%).
2009 defeat for the 2009 Greek legislative election On 2 September 2009 Karamanlis announced his intention to call an election, although one was not required until September 2011. The parliament was dissolved on 9 September, and the
2009 legislative election was held on 4 October. New Democracy's share of the parliamentary vote dropped to 33.47% (down by 8.37%) and they won only 91 of 300 seats, dropping by 61 since the
last election. The rival PASOK soared to 43.92% (up 5.82%), and took 160 seats (up 58). Karamanlis conceded defeat and stated that he would resign as a leader of New Democracy, and would not stand as a candidate at the next party election. Two former
Ministers for Foreign Affairs,
Dora Bakoyannis and
Antonis Samaras, as well as
Thessaloniki Prefect Panagiotis Psomiadis were announced as candidates, with Samaras being the favorite to win. On 29 November 2009, Antonis Samaras was elected the new leader of New Democracy by the party base at the
2009 leadership election. Following early results showing Samaras in the lead, his main rival Dora Bakoyannis conceded defeat and congratulated Samaras for his election; later she left New Democracy to found her own party,
Democratic Alliance. Samaras himself had also left New Democracy in 1992 because of his hard stance on the
Macedonia naming dispute and found his own party,
Political Spring; he returned to New Democracy in 2004.
2011 government debt crisis New Democracy was in opposition during the first phase (2009–11) of the
Greek government debt crisis which included the
First bailout package agreed in May 2010. The party did not support the first EU/IMF rescue package of May 2010 and the three related austerity packages of
March 2010,
May 2010 and
June 2011. Further measures were agreed by prime minister
George Papandreou with the EU and private banks and insurers on 27 October 2011. The aim was to complete negotiations by the end of the year and put in place a full
Second bailout package to supplement the one agreed in May 2010. Samaras initially blasted the deal. In reality New Democracy had dismissed cross-party agreement even before the deal was agreed. A few days later, Papandreou announced a
surprise referendum. During the frantic negotiations that followed, Samaras offered to support the austerity package he had initially condemned if Papandreou resigned and an interim government be appointed to lead the country to elections early in the new year. The referendum was never held, and Papandreou resigned in early November 2011. New Democracy supported the new
national unity government headed by
Lucas Papademos; however the party's support for austerity appeared lukewarm at first. in 2012 Within a few days, party officials spoke of "renegotiating" existing agreements with the EU and IMF. EU partners requested that Samaras sign a letter committing him to the terms of the rescue package, in what was seen as an effort to keep the nationalist elements of his party happy. Samaras argued that his word should be enough and that the demand for a written commitment was "humiliating". Both Papademos and the EU insisted on a written commitment. New Democracy repeated its call for new elections. Samaras was said to be infuriating European leaders by only partly backing the international reform programme. A meeting of
Eurozone's Finance Ministers was postponed in February 2012, when it became apparent that not all the main political parties were willing to pledge to honour the conditions demanded in return for the rescue package; a day later Samaras reversed course and wrote to the European Commission and IMF, promising to implement the austerity measures if his party were to win a
general election in April. German finance minister
Wolfgang Schäuble suggested postponing the election and setting up a small technocratic cabinet like
Italy's to run Greece for the next two years. New Democracy during its rule introduced a strict immigration policy, and proposed strengthening this policy as part of its political agenda. Samaras also implemented a series of reforms and
austerity measures with the aim of reducing government budget deficits and making the Greek economy competitive. In 2013 he passed reform bills approving the layoff of 15,000 public employees, among them high school teachers, school guards and municipal policemen. At the same time, he cut value-added tax (VAT) in restaurants to 13 percent from 23 percent. He also passed a bill instituting the Single Property Tax and the auction of houses. The
Minister of Administrative Reform and e-Governance Kyriakos Mitsotakis implemented an evaluation process on the public sector to locate surplus staff members. Greece achieved a primary government budget surplus in 2013. In April 2014, Greece returned to the global bond market as it successfully sold €3 billion worth of five-year government bonds at a yield of 4.95%. Greece's credit rating was upgraded by Fitch from B− to B. Greece returned to growth after six years of economic decline in the second quarter of 2014, and was the eurozone's fastest-growing economy in the third quarter. On healthcare,
Minister for Health Adonis Georgiadis gave complete free pharmaceutical coverage to more than 2.000.000 uninsured citizens, with the cost being set at 340 million euros.
In opposition (2015–2019) In its electoral campaign for the
January 2015 legislative election, Samaras promised to continue with his plan to exit the bailout and return to growth by further privatizations, a corporate tax rate reduced to 15 percent and a recapitalization of Greece's banks. The party received a total of €747,214 of state funding, the largest share of all political parties in Greece. In the election, ND was defeated by
SYRIZA. On 5 July 2015 Samaras stepped down from party leadership. New Democracy was once again defeated by SYRIZA in the September 2015 legislative election, but maintained its number of seats in the Hellenic Parliament. On 10 January 2016
Kyriakos Mitsotakis was
elected as new party leader. On 4 October 2018, the party adopted a new logo.
Fifth government (2019–present) In the
2019 legislative election, New Democracy won 158 seats in the 300-seat
Hellenic Parliament, a majority of the seats, enabling it to form a
government on its own under Prime Minister
Kyriakos Mitsotakis. During the
COVID-19 pandemic, Mitsotakis' efforts to deal with the prolonged lockdown in Greece received widespread praise from Greek and International press, analysts, and academics, for the well-structured approach and continuous reliance on scientific expertise of the Greek pandemic task force, headed by
Sotiris Tsiodras. In 2021, the country managed to keep the new cases of COVID-19 to low levels by enforcing back to back strict lockdowns in Athens and Thessaloniki, and enabling different emergency protocols for rural areas. At the same time the government focused on tackling the pandemic before the launch of the 2021 summer tourist season in an attempt to boost the country's economy. During Mitsotakis's term as prime minister, he has received praise for his
pro-European and
technocratic governance, his handling of the
COVID-19 pandemic in Greece, and is credited with the modernization and digitalization of the country's public administration, as well as for his overall management of the Greek economy, with Greece being named the Top Economic Performer for 2022 and 2023 by
The Economist. This was in particular due to Greece in 2022 being able to repay ahead of schedule the 2.7 billion euros ($2.87 billion) of loans owed to
Eurozone countries under the first bailout it received during the
decade-long debt crisis, along with being on the verge of reaching an investment-grade rating. Mitsotakis has also received criticism, as during his term Greece experienced heightened corruption, and a deterioration of
freedom of the press. His term was marred by the
Novartis corruption scandal, the
2022 wiretapping scandal, and the
Tempi Train crash. Additionally, he has received both praise and criticism for his handling of migration, including support and aid from the
European Union, but criticism from journalists and activists for
pushbacks, which his government has denied. In the
May 2023 elections, the only election to use the
purely proportional system introduced by SYRIZA in 2016, Mitsotakis led the party to achieve a plurality of the seats in parliament. Soon after the results were announced, Mitsotakis called
snap elections for the following month, with this election returning to the
majority bonus system. In his second term, Mitsotakis introduced landmark bills, focusing on the establishment of private academic institutions in Greece, as well as revisions to the tax and income systems. Additionally, legislation was proposed for same-sex marriage and adoption by same-sex couples, a move that was widely described as progressive. However, these initiatives faced significant opposition from right-wing and hard-right factions within the party, as well as the
Greek Orthodox church, who openly expressed their disagreement with the proposed legislation. Despite the opposition, in February 2024, Greece became the first Orthodox Christian country to recognise same-sex marriage and adoption by same-sex couples. In the
2024 European Parliament election, New Democracy came first, but ceded ground in terms of both popular vote and seats secured. In July 2025, the government implemented a three month suspension of asylum processing for migrants from North Africa, drawing criticism from human rights groups. The government has also introduced a new law concerning those whose asylum claims have been rejected: they will have to choose between voluntarily deportation or jail sentences of two to five years, as well as fines of up to 10,000 euros ($11,600), if convicted of illegal entry and stay. == Ideology ==