The Greek president on Saturday approved a request by Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis to dissolve the country’s parliament, Reuters reported.
The parliament will officially be dissolved on Sunday, paving the way for national elections on May 21.
Mitsotakis asked for parliament to be dissolved on April 23. It had already been closed for Orthodox Easter.
“I hope we have a calm and fruitful pre-election period, for the good of the country,” President Katerina Sakellaropoulou said, according to Reuters.
Mitsotakis announced new elections for May 21 in March. His government’s term expires in July.
“Elections are a great celebration of democracy,” Mitsotakis told local press in a statement, adding that he hoped elections would be free from poison. This is a thinly veiled jab against rival party Syriza after he accused them of vulgarity and toxicity in a statement on Friday.
The vote will take place under a new proportional representation system in the 300-seat Hellenic Parliament — posing difficulties for any party to gather a majority and making two rounds of voting likely. The runoff election would probably take place in July.
Mitsotakis’ government has recently faced pressure over its handling of a deadly train crash. Saddled with problems like high inflation and food prices, a wiretapping scandal and other issues, his party is far from certain to win the elections.
