A special election tribunal on Tuesday annulled the Parliament seats won by three members of the far-right Spartans Party, including that of the party’s head, Vassilis Stigas.
The reasoning behind the unprecedented decision to throw the trio out of Parliament is that the specific party deceived voters in 2024 general election, as its real leader is jailed former Golden Dawn lieutenant and MP Ilias Kasidiaris. In other words, the court ruled that voters that cast a ballot for this party were intentionally misled.
Motions had been filed against the three now-deposed deputies, and not against all the Spartans’ candidates elected to Parliament. The other two deputies who lost their seats were Petros Dimitriadis and Alexandros Zerveas.
In another rarely seen development, Greece’s Parliament will now field a plenum of 297 deputies, instead of the usual 300, as the seats stripped from the trio will not be filled by runners-up from the same party. Under the Greek constitution, the minimum with which the national legislature can operate is 200.
As such, a Parliamentary majority is now set at 149+1.
