The May 21 Greek election was historic for several reasons. First, never has an election which failed to allow the winning party to form a government settled the political scores within the Greek political system.

New Democracy (ND), the Greek grand-old centre-right party, emerged victorious by receiving 40.8 per cent of the vote, while leftwing SYRIZA shrunk to just 20 per cent. After having government for four turbulent years, the – now former, but likely future as well – PM and ND leader, Kyriakos Mitsotakis, increased his political capital, making the “repeat” June 25th elections a race for one, leaving SYRIZA and former center-left powerhouse PASOK fight for second place.

But the parameter that made this election truly historic, is that for the first time in the – relatively short, timewise, but incredibly rich simultaneously – history of the modern Greek state, Greeks living abroad had the right to vote in the national elections. This was a result of a long-term demand from the Greek diaspora around the world, which materialised in late 2019, when the Hellenic Parliament reached a cross-party compromise, which secured Greeks’ rights to vote from abroad. The method of the voting process and voter eligibility became incredibly politicised – and certainly limited the number of voters which enrolled themselves in the relevant voter lists – but in the bigger picture, this law was a success. For the first time ever, the voice of the Greek diaspora will resonate within the Parliament.

Decoding the “overseas vote”

First, it’s essential to consider who voted from overseas. Given the complex eligibility requirements that parties from the official opposition from 2019 to 2023 insisted on – such as SYRIZA and the communist KKE – the only Greeks who could apply to vote from overseas were those who, had they been in their home prefectures during election day, would be able to just walk, drive, or commute to their voting stations and cast their votes regularly.

In other words, one had to be already eligible to vote within Greece, to have the right to self-transfer to the “overseas” prefecture; as a rule of thumb, eligible voters had to prove that during the past 35 years, that had lived in Greece for at least two.

Consequently, double-citizens who may have Greek ancestry and may even hold a Greek passport – as is the case with many Greek-Australians – were excluded from the process if they could not meet the two-year residency requirement. This, of course, raises a philosophical question, possessing a Greek passport is synonymous to the right of moving to Greece and establishing oneself there unconditionally, hence the exclusion from the voting process is ethically dubious. Still, that’s a question that the next Hellenic Parliament will have to address.

Second, the results speak for themselves. Greeks abroad voted overwhelmingly in favour of ND, giving it 42.6 per cent, while about 19 per cent voted for SYRIZA instead; in other words, the “overseas” electorate largely reflected the “domestic” one, as both the difference between the two biggest parties, as well as their respective percentages are largely the same, albeit somewhat more skewed to ND’s side.

Where it becomes interesting, however, is the third place: “overseas” Greeks gave Yanis Varoufakis’ MeRA25 11.07 per cent – when its overall percentage was just 2.63per cent and less than the required 3 per cent to enter parliament – while also giving KKE 10.7 per cent – when KKE won 7.2 per cent of the vote overall, finishing fourth. On the other hand, overseas voters gave PASOK just 6.7 per cent, when the party finished an easy and confident third with 11.5 per cent.

There are a few points to decipher here: first, it is true that ND won the overseas vote very easily. This makes sense, as ND – and Mitsotakis himself – was instrumental in granting Greeks abroad the right to vote. Second, SYRIZA did not collapse in the overseas vote, which only proves that the party’s insistence in limiting the magnitude of overseas Greeks’ influence in the Greek parliament was a poorly judged strategy. Third, Greeks abroad did not vote for far-right parties such as Elliniki Lysi or Niki – with the former entering parliament again, and the latter failing to do so by a few hundred votes – but for far-left ones, such as MeRA25 and KKE. Fourth, that the overseas vote, as historic as it was, it failed to shape the result in a significant way, as the juxtapositions between how overseas voted in contrast to those living in Greece were heavily skewed to the latter. This, of course, is a result of how few overseas votes were cast, which were just 18.000.

How Greek-Australians voted

The – almost – insignificant impact of the overseas vote is sadly best reflected by the Greek-Australian vote. Overall, only 169 votes were cast in Australia – 98 in Melbourne and 71 in Sydney – and ND came first with 54 per cent, with MeRA25 coming second with 15.2 per cent, KKE third with 9.6 per cent and SYRIZA fourth with just 6.4per cent; once again, the antithesis between the Greek-Australian vote and the domestic one is noteworthy, albeit Varoufakis’ Australian past clearly improved MeRA25’s numbers in the country.

What we should emphasize, though, is that the Greek-Australian vote could have been far more impactful. How do we know this? Well, once again, because the numbers speak for themselves. From the earliest days of the Greek debt crisis, a large number – which remains impossible to calculate exactly, but most probably exceeds 20.000 – of Greeks with Australian heritage moved from mainland Greece to Australia, often without ever having visited their newly adopted homeland before in their lives.

Neos Kosmos has been covering the flock of new Greek-Australian migrants throughout the previous decade, and what we can conclude without a single doubt is that the Greek-Australian community of the mid-2020s is far more connected to Greek affairs compared to the immigrant communities of the 1990s, for instance. Above all, those Greeks who have recently moved to Australia – be it Melbourne or elsewhere – already have the right to vote, as they fulfil the current law’s two-year residency in Greece.

The million-dollar question is to mobilise the Greek-Australian vote. The leaders of the Greek-Australian community have historically been doing a phenomenal job keeping Greek culture and awareness alive, and the fact that there is now a precedent of Greeks voting from Australia opens the road for more participation. Of course, our lens should be macroscopic; the June 25 elections are only four weeks away, and there is no more time to register in the relevant overseas voters’ lists. However, in four years from now, the Greek-Australian vote could easily number a few thousand voters, instead of just a few hundred, particularly if the next Greek administration – which will most probably be a single-party ND one – doubles down on its effort to mobilize the Greek diaspora. But it is essentially for prominent Greek leaders and cabinet members to travel Down Under and experience the fervent spirit of the Greek-Australian community up close.

Neither Kyriakos Mitsotakis, nor his minister of foreign affairs, Nikos Dendias, travelled to Australia during ND’s previous stint – possibly due to the prolonged Covid-19 restrictions – but now it is time they did. Of course, there is much space for improvement in the bilateral relations between Greece and Australia, but that’s a topic for another day.

A historic opportunity

If one looks at the official results posted by the Greek ministry of the interior, they will notice the distinct “overseas” tab below the “electoral districts one.” Clicking on it opens the world map, and shows which party won each country were enough Greeks registered to vote. But this map shows something else, much more important: how far and wide Greeks have travelled since the foundation of the modern Greek state, how much they changed their own fates, and how deeply rooted the concept of diaspora is rooted with Hellenism. Greeks are everywhere, and since May 21, 2023, some Greeks can vote from anywhere. It is time that their numbers – and the impact of their vote – increased, and there is no better – or more Greek – place to start than Australia.