On June 26, Greece’s New Democracy Party (ND) stormed to a landslide victory in the polls, accumulating 40.5% of the national vote. The triumph earned conservative leader Kyriakos Mitsotakis a second term as prime minister. Mitsotakis’s continuity of rule came with lofty promises of creating new jobs, more revenue, and raising wages in a bid to add to an economy that is 6.4 percentage above its pre-pandemic level.

The New Democracy Party faces a challenging road ahead to leverage reforms and deliver much needed growth progression. "I have committed that in this second term we will realise the big changes that the country so much needs," Mitsotakis told President Katerina Sakellaropoulou upon receiving his mandate to form a government.

Yet, a key irritant to those “big changes” is the rise of the Greek far-right in parliament, represented by three key parties that are likely to refuse Mitsotakis an easy path to economic and anti-corruption reform.

Consider the fact that a group of parties spanning the Spartans, Greek Solution, and Niki broke the minimum vote threshold to enter into the parliamentary mainstream. Far-right Spartans secured 4.7 % of the vote in an election campaign that starkly contrasted with Mitsotakis’s growth-centric national focus, pointing to an ominous collusion with Greek fundamentalists, neo-fascists, and ultra-nationalists. The transformation in Spartans’ fortunes is reflective of the deep political polarization on issues such as migration, and was supported in part  by Ilias Kasidiaris, the notorious proponent of the banned neo-Nazi political party “Golden Dawn.”

The far-right’s stakes in parliament raise major questions about the Mitsotakis-led administration’s ability to promote conservative-liberal positions on issues spanning drastic debt reduction, improved economic progression, and a more nuanced approach to rule of law overhaul. Leftist Greek newspaper Syntakon rightly declared the far-right’s ascension as the “darkest result” of the last half century in Greece’s history, particularly since the revival of Greek democracy in the early 1970s.

Nearly 13 percent of the vote is shared among the three fringe parties, challenging the notion that the New Democracy Party is resolute in its resistance to hardline fascist ideologies and the groups that promote it. The result of the elections has also added to the hard-right’s national representation, indicating an underlying split among some segments of Greek voters who share growing affinity for parties that promote radical, populist reform, and build on an unspoken commitment to dialing-up anti-immigrant sentiment.

Despite Mitsotakis’s success in steering Greece’s post-pandemic economic recovery, including through a cumulative growth of 15% in the past two years, the margin for complacency on debt-reduction and wages is very slim. It helps to recall that the far-right consolidated itself significantly in Greek politics during periods when the country was shaken by a financial crisis over a decade ago. Major gains were captured by the notorious Golden Dawn party, a now-disbanded group of neo-nazi origins with its major leadership confined to jails. The Spartans’ dramatic political comeback in Greek parliamentary elections opens the door to 35 seats for the far-right, signaling some potential resistance to Mitsotakis’s envisioned domestic economic and anti-corruption reforms in the country.

That includes potential efforts by the New Democracy Party to tighten scrutiny of groups and leaders with criminal ties, and a concerted effort to prevent more extremist attacks against migrants and key liberal figures. Meanwhile, continuity in Greece’s fiscal policies under Mitsotakis is likely to provide a launchpad for delivering on double-digit economic growth that lifts the country’s business community to the benefit of all groups across the political spectrum. That includes the far-right, which would welcome some ownership of the New Democracy Party’s growth performance to cater to its own vote bank and sway more segments. “I think the composition of the new, eight-party parliament will give rise to many challenges,” said Katerina Sakellaropoulou this week.

On translating Greece’s steady economic revival into guaranteed long-term expansion, Mitsotakis will have to make some tough decisions. The Greek economy is about 20% smaller in size than over a decade ago, and severe inflationary pressures refuse ideal circumstances to pivot the economy toward stable shores. Robust growth in foreign direct investment and exports is also difficult to view in isolation from the broader target of limiting the country’s debt burden. Greece, despite significant gains, is home to one of the eurozone’s highest debt loads, and it is yet to be seen how accelerated exports are marking a break in that colossal sum. Overseas perceptions about deep-rooted domestic corruption in the country demand addressing, given their role in undermining Greece’s status as a top investment destination. For instance, widespread tax evasion is a case in point, and the need to muster effective revenue collection safeguards will be chief to bringing tax outliers into a productive government net.

As it stands, a dominant Greek conservative majority accompanied by far-right variants in parliament makes for a difficult act of statesmanship for Mitsotakis. If his promised economic reforms endure, the New Democracy Party may set a positive precedent to consolidate divergent political ideologies under the banner of shared growth.