June 1989 Greek parliamentary election

← 1985 18 June 1989 Nov 1989 →
All 300 seats in theHellenic Parliament 151 seats needed for a majority
Registered	8,302,412
Turnout	80.33% ( 0.14pp)
First party Second party Third party   Leader Konstantinos Mitsotakis Andreas Papandreou Charilaos Florakis Party ND PASOK Synaspismos Last election 40.84%, 126 seats 45.82%, 161 seats – Seats won 145 125 28 Seat change 19 36 New Popular vote 2,887,488 2,551,518 855,944 Percentage 44.28% 39.13% 13.13% Swing 3.44pp 6.69pp New   Fourth party Fifth party   Leader Konstantinos Stephanopoulos Sadik Achmet Party DIANA Trust Last election – – Seats won 1 1 Seat change New New Popular vote 65,614 25,099 Percentage 1.01% 0.38% Swing New New
Prime Minister before election Andreas Papandreou PASOK Prime Minister after election Tzannis Tzannetakis ND

Parliamentary elections were held inGreece on 18 June 1989.^[1] The liberal-conservativeNew Democracy party ofKonstantinos Mitsotakis, supported by leftist parties underSynaspismos headed byCharilaos Florakis, defeated the rulingPASOK party ofAndreas Papandreou.

The elections took place in a tense andpolarized atmosphere, amplified by both sides. New Democracy and Leftist parties underSynaspismos campaigned on accusations of corruption against PASOK amid a series of growing scandals, most notably theKoskotas andYugoslav corn affairs. In response, Papandreou introduced laws aimed at stalling the investigations and used thestate monopoly overmass media to contain the scandals. Moreover, he changed theelectoral law shortly before the elections, a move designed to prevent New Democracy from securing an absolute majority. On election day, multiple election irregularities by the state were reported.

New Democracy secured a 5% lead in the popular vote, but the newly revised electoral law prevented it from forming a government. The second party, PASOK also failed to form a government because the other Leftist parties refused to provide support. The stalemate was broken with the unexpected agreement between New Democracy and Synaspismos to form a short-term government with a limitedmandate of "katharsis," a thorough investigation of PASOK's corruption.Tzannis Tzannetakis was chosen as a compromise to lead thecoalition government and it was dissolved after the indictment of Papandreou of four of his ministers in connection to the Koskotas scandal on 7 October. This marked the first and, as of 2025, the only occasion when theCommunist Party of Greece (as part of Synaspismos) joined a governing coalition.

George Koskotas began working at the Bank of Crete in 1979 and quickly accumulated wealth by falsifying bank records. By 1985, he had purchased the bank and used it to build a growing media empire. His rise drew scrutiny, as investigations into rapid media ownership changes in the mid-1980s raised suspicions among publishers and the judiciary. To evade prosecution, he fled to theUnited States, where he was arrested on unrelated fraud charges. From prison, Koskotas claimed that more than US$200 million^[i] missing from his bank had beenembezzled with the help of several government ministers and even Papandreou. In exchange, he had used his media outlets to support Papandreou'ssocialist party (PASOK), even acquiring conservative newspapers once critical of Papandreou.^[2][3] The allegations sparked international attention and political turmoil.^[4]

Several months after the arrest of Koskotas, six ministers (includingCostas Simitis^[5]) resigned in protest of the corruption among the most senior members of PASOK.^[4] There were demands for avote of no confidence against the government, which Papandreou defeated in December 1988 and another one in March 1989.^[6] Still, three members of PASOK voted against the party line, however, Papandreou responded by removing them from PASOK, includingAntonis Tritsis, who was a founding member of PASOK.^[7]

Despite the rising public frustration with the state of affairs, Papandreou abused his position to stay in power since he had successfullyremoved constitutional restraints in 1985. Notable actions include but are not limited to the following:

• Papandreou changed theelectoral law shortly before the elections, a move designed to prevent New Democracy from securing an absolute majority.^{[ii][8][9][10]}
• Bestowing public appointments to about 90,000 people to gain additional votes six months before the 1989 elections;^[11]Synaspismos political party decried this as a "recruitment orgy."^[12] Papandreou's blatant patronage reached the point of giving in one of his rallies a public command to the Minister of FinanceDimitris Tsovolas to "give it all [to them]" (Greek:Τσοβόλα δώσ'τα όλα) and the crowd chanted these back.^[13][14]
• Judicial independence was damaged when Papandreou passed a law via emergency procedures—despite massive backlash from lawyers, judges, and clerks—to prevent the judicial investigation of the Koskotas scandal from advancing to Athens Appeals Court.^[15]

The election campaigns were conducted under a polarized atmosphere with inflammatory allegations and vitriolic personal attacks, even between the two leaders of the dominant political parties.^[16] PASOK's programme avoided mentioning the Koskota scandal and instead emphasized economic modernization with slogans, "For Victory and New Progress," and "PASOK is here: certainty for the present, hope for the future."^[17] New Democracy's campaign strategy was based onliberalization of the market, i.e., "free the competitive forces of the market" from the overreaching state, but also criticized PASOK about the scandals with the slogan, "We deserve a better Greece."^[18]

On 2 June,Avriani, a tabloid newspaper supporting PASOK, published a transcript of a conversation between Mitsotakis and an unidentified mistress that was supposedly being taped and also claimed to possess 'pornographic' photographs of Mitsotakis but never published.^[16] This was in response to the publication of nude photos of sunbathingDimitra Liani, Papandreou's then-mistress.^[16] The rhetorical confrontation between the two leaders in the campaigns was personal. Papandreou implied that Mitsotakis was aNazi collaborator duringWorld War II and talked about Mitsotakis' "treachery" against his father's government inIouliana of 1965.^[19] On the other side, Mitsotakis, invoking the Koskotas scandal, talked of Papandreou's "little corrupt team that has looted Greece" and that PASOK was led by "a bunch of thieves."^[19] Papandreou's defense was that the scandal was created and used against him: "The Americans and the Right together with the crook Koskotas are conspiring to otherthrow socialism in Greece."^[19]

Despite the friction between the two sides in the newspapers, PASOK had the advantage of being the governing party, having control of the state apparatus that provided radio and television services, which became an unconcealed component of PASOK'spropaganda.^[20][12] For example, state television programs, including from two foreigncable networks, were interrupted to display Papandreou's final speech at his mass rally in Athens, but no such opportunity was presented for other political leaders.^[12]

Weeks before the elections, various terrorist groups advocated to the public to spoil their ballots and used bombs against public buildings, including those ofMinistry of Health and theMinistry of Justice.^[21]

Irregularities and poor vote handling and counting were reported on election day.^[22]Antonis Tritsis, a PASOK defector and leader ofGreek Radical Movement, accused the state officials of not sending his party ballots to many polling stations.^[22] Mitsotakis also accused the government of failing to send the election officials to their appointed polling stations or of delaying the opening.^[22] Both New Democracy and Synaspismos were irritated by the refusal of theMinistry of Interior to release the official vote count, which was released a week later.^[22]

Party		Votes	%	Seats	+/–
	New Democracy	2,887,488	44.28	145	19
	Panhellenic Socialist Movement	2,551,518	39.13	125	–36
	Coalition of the Left and Progress	855,944	13.13	28	New
	Democratic Renewal	65,614	1.01	1	New
	Trust	25,099	0.38	1	New
	National Party–National Political Union	21,149	0.32	0	0
	KKE Interior – Renewing Left	18,159	0.28	0	New
	Greek Socialist Party	13,863	0.21	0	New
	Christian Democracy	11,450	0.18	0	New
	Fate	9,064	0.14	0	New
	Liberal Party	9,001	0.14	0	0
	Ecologist Movement – Political Renewal	8,182	0.13	0	New
	Union of the Democratic Centre	7,770	0.12	0	New
	Alternative Anti-Capitalist Cohesion	6,185	0.09	0	New
	Direct Democracy	5,939	0.09	0	New
	Greek Radical Movement	4,162	0.06	0	New
	Greek Orthodox Movement for Salvation	3,756	0.06	0	New
	Communist Party of Greece (Marxist–Leninist)	3,350	0.05	0	New
	Revolutionary Communist Movement of Greece	2,709	0.04	0	0
	Fighting Socialist Party of Greece	2,317	0.04	0	0
	Self-Governed Movement of Labour Politics	1,912	0.03	0	New
	Marxist–Leninist Communist Party of Greece	1,636	0.03	0	New
	Labour Anti-Imperialistic Movement	1,432	0.02	0	New
	Olympic Party	1,229	0.02	0	New
	Organization for the Reconstruction of the KKE	873	0.01	0	New
	Panhellenic Ecological Movement	403	0.01	0	New
	Independent Personalities	113	0.00	0	New
	Integrated Social Union	65	0.00	0	New
	Independent Movement of Democratic Refresh	54	0.00	0	New
	Collaboration Alliance of Independent Candidate MPs	28	0.00	0	New
	Panhellenic Uncommitted Party of Equality	26	0.00	0	New
	Federal Democratic Party of Greece	25	0.00	0	New
	Party of Humanism and Peace	15	0.00	0	New
	Independent Radical Spring Renewal	10	0.00	0	New
	Independent Social Democratic Revival	10	0.00	0	New
	Olympic Democracy	2	0.00	0	0
	Independents	659	0.01	0	0
Total		6,521,211	100.00	300	0
Valid votes		6,521,211	97.78
Invalid/blank votes		148,017	2.22
Total votes		6,669,228	100.00
Registered voters/turnout		8,302,412	80.33
Source: Nohlen & Stöver[1]

PASOK's electoral percentage dropped to 38%, down from 48% in 1981, primarily due to the fallout from the Koskotas scandal.^[23] Although Mitsotakis' New Democracy party secured 43%, it was insufficient to form a government, as Papandreou's last-minute change of the electoral law required a party to win 50% of the vote to govern alone. Mitsotakis made an offer toCharilaos Florakis, head of Synaspismos, but it was rejected. Papandreou had designed the electoral law so that PASOK, even if it came in second, could form a government with the backing of other leftist parties, but his offer to Florakis was rejected.^[24]

The failure of the two major parties to secure enough support to form a government led to ahung parliament. The impasse was resolved when Florakis announced "a broadly based consensus government under a neutral prime minister" on 27 June 1989. Mitsotakis agreed to step down andTzannis Tzannetakis served as prime minister for the coalition government, marking a historic compromise.^[25] Despite their opposing ideologies and their division during theGreek Civil War both sides sought a "katharsis," a thorough investigation into PASOK's corruption.^[26][11][27] This decision carried significant weight, as failing to bring charges against Papandreou under this coalition would prevent any future government from doing so according to the Greek constitution.^[28][29] The participation of Synaspismos in the government also marked the end of the militarized politics of the past, since there was no reaction from the military. Papandreou denounced the collaborative government as "unholy and unprincipled,"^[30] and he ordered his ministers not to cooperate in the handover of power, and official documents and state treaties went missing.^[31]

The coalition government indicted Papandreou and four of his ministers on 28 September 1989, after which it was dissolved and new elections took place inNovember 1989.^[26]Moreover, to avoid political exploitation from any future omnipotent prime minister, it dismantled some of the state's surveillance infrastructure and granted the first private televisionbroadcast license to publishers critical to PASOK as a counterbalance to state media.^[32][33]

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