ATHENS – Despite a setback in European Parliament elections – with 58.61 percent abstention – Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis said he won’t move to change electoral laws to make it easier for a winning party to control parliament.

He told SKAI TV the current electoral law – already having been amended to make it more difficult for an election winner to form a government without a coalition partner, that it will remain for now.

“These are the rules, and it is with these rules that we will go (to the next election,” he said. “I believe in single-party governments, but the electoral law is what it is… If we implement our program… we’ll be fine in 2027,” in the next election, he said.

Mitsotakis has twice routed the major opposition SYRIZA – in 2019 when the Leftists were in power – and again in 2023, garnering 40.79 percent and 40.56 percent, but only 28.31 in the EU elections.

Mitsotakis and the Conservatives have a nearly unassailable lead that, if it holds up, would see New Democracy win again, despite dissatisfaction among some voters over high prices and alleged coverups of a train tragedy and refugee boat sinking.

That has created a risk that even if the party wins again, and relatively easily, that if too many other parties cross the 3 percent threshold to get into Parliament that the winner will need a coalition partner.

A 5o seat bonus for winners was abolished when SYRIZA was in power and the elections now are under a proportional system allocating seats based on the percentage of the vote, making it more likely for a coalition government.