Local elections were held in

Greece Greece, officially the Hellenic Republic, is a country in Southeast Europe. Located on the southern tip of the Balkan peninsula, it shares land borders with Albania to the northwest, North Macedonia and Bulgaria to the north, and Turkey to th ...

on 18 May 2014 (first round) and 25 May 2014 (second round). Voters elected representatives to the country's

local authorities Local government is a generic term for the lowest tiers of governance or public administration within a particular sovereign state. Local governments typically constitute a subdivision of a higher-level political or administrative unit, such a ...

, comprising 13

regions In geography, regions, otherwise referred to as areas, zones, lands or territories, are portions of the Earth's surface that are broadly divided by physical characteristics (physical geography), human impact characteristics (human geography), and ...

and 325

municipalities A municipality is usually a single administrative division having municipal corporation, corporate status and powers of self-government or jurisdiction as granted by national and regional laws to which it is subordinate. The term ''municipality' ...

Background

Traditionally, candidates at local elections do not run under the official name of any party as the constitution only foresees the participation of electoral lists (or "combinations") and not parties. Despite this theoretical independence and distinction, for all practical purposes most candidates run as local front organisations for political parties.

Issues

Greece is still facing a long-term government-debt crisis, which may affect the elections.

Election results

Source
Hellenic Ministry of the Interior
In the municipalities, as well as the regions, any candidate can participate in the first round. If the leading candidate does not have an absolute majority (50%+) of the votes, then a second round is held between the two leading candidates in the first round.

Regions

Attica

Contender Rena Dourou (

SYRIZA The Coalition of the Radical Left – Progressive Alliance (), best known by the syllabic abbreviation SYRIZA ( ; ; a pun on the Greek adverb , meaning "from the roots" or "radically"), is a Centre-left politics, centre-left to Left-wing politi ...

) defeated incumbent Ioannis Sgouros (Society of Values) in the second round and succeeded him as Regional Governor of

Attica Attica (, ''Attikḗ'' (Ancient Greek) or , or ), or the Attic Peninsula, is a historical region that encompasses the entire Athens metropolitan area, which consists of the city of Athens, the capital city, capital of Greece and the core cit ...

Central Greece

Kostas Bakoyannis ( ND) defeated Evangelos Apostolou (

) in the second round and succeeded Klearchos Pergantas (

PASOK The Panhellenic Socialist Movement (, ), known mostly by its acronym PASOK (; , ), is a social democracy, social-democratic List of political parties in Greece, political party in Greece. Until 2012 it was Two-party system, one of the two major ...

) as Regional Governor of Central Greece.

Central Macedonia

Incumbent

Apostolos Tzitzikostas Apostolos G. Tzitzikostas (, ; born 2 September 1978) is a Greek politician who served as governor of the region of Central Macedonia from 2013 to 2024 and was formerly President of the European Committee of the Regions from 2020 until 2022. Sin ...

( ANEL/ EPAL/

LAOS Laos, officially the Lao People's Democratic Republic (LPDR), is the only landlocked country in Southeast Asia. It is bordered by Myanmar and China to the northwest, Vietnam to the east, Cambodia to the southeast, and Thailand to the west and ...

) defeated contender

Giannis Ioannidis Giannis Ioannidis (alternate spellings: Ioannis, Yiannis, Yannis) (Greek: Γιάννης Ιωαννίδης; 26 February 1945 – 4 October 2023) was a Greek basketball player, professional basketball coach, and Greece New Democracy (ND) politic ...

( ND) in the second round and remained Regional Governor of

Central Macedonia Central Macedonia ( ; , ) is one of the thirteen Regions of Greece, administrative regions of Greece, consisting the central part of the Geographic regions of Greece, geographical and historical region of Macedonia (Greece), Macedonia. With a ...

Crete

Incumbent Stavros Arnaoutakis ( Drasi) defeated contender Serafim Tsokas ( ND) in the second round and remained Regional Governor of

Crete Crete ( ; , Modern Greek, Modern: , Ancient Greek, Ancient: ) is the largest and most populous of the Greek islands, the List of islands by area, 88th largest island in the world and the List of islands in the Mediterranean#By area, fifth la ...

Eastern Macedonia and Thrace

Giorgos Pavlidis Giorgos Pavlidis (; 1956 – 20 October 2016) was a Greek politician of Nea Dimokratia. The long-standing Prefect of Xanthi was narrowly defeated in the 2010 local election, but was elected Governor of the region of Eastern Macedonia and Thrace ...

( ND), the former prefect of

Xanthi Xanthi is a city in the region of Western Thrace, northeastern Greece. It is the capital of the Xanthi regional unit of the region of East Macedonia and Thrace. Amphitheatrically built on the foot of Rhodope mountain chain, the city is divided ...

, defeated incumbent Aris Giannakidis (ind.) in the second round and succeeded him as Regional Governor of

Eastern Macedonia and Thrace Eastern Macedonia and Thrace ( ; , ) is one of the thirteen Regions of Greece, administrative regions of Greece. It consists of the northeastern parts of the country, comprising the eastern part of the Geographic regions of Greece, region of ...

Epirus

Incumbent Alexandros Kachrimanis ( ND) defeated contender

Olga Gerovasili Olga Gerovasili (; born 16 January 1961) is a Greek politician who has been serving as a member of the Hellenic Parliament for Arta since 17 May 2012. Born in Arta, she studied radiology at the National and Kapodistrian University of Athens. She ...

(

) in the first round and remained Regional Governor of

Epirus Epirus () is a Region#Geographical regions, geographical and historical region, historical region in southeastern Europe, now shared between Greece and Albania. It lies between the Pindus Mountains and the Ionian Sea, stretching from the Bay ...

Ionian Islands

Contender Theodoros Galiatsatos (

), defeated incumbent ( ND) in the second round and succeeded him as Regional Governor of the

Ionian Islands The Ionian Islands (Modern Greek: , ; Ancient Greek, Katharevousa: , ) are a archipelago, group of islands in the Ionian Sea, west of mainland Greece. They are traditionally called the Heptanese ("Seven Islands"; , ''Heptanēsa'' or , ''Heptanē ...

North Aegean

Contender

Christiana Kalogirou Christiana Kalogirou (; born 1964 in Athens) is a Greek economist and politician of Nea Dimokratia. Since October 2014, she has been serving as Regional Governor of the North Aegean. Biography Born 1964 in Athens, Kalogirou studied economic ...

( ND) defeated incumbent (ind.) in the second round and succeeded him as Regional Governor of the

North Aegean The North Aegean Region (, ) is one of the thirteen administrative regions of Greece, and the smallest of the thirteen by population. It comprises the islands of the north-eastern Aegean Sea, called the North Aegean islands, except for Thasos an ...

Peloponnese

Incumbent Petros Tatoulis ( ND) defeated contender Odysseas Voudouris (

) in the second round and remained Regional Governor of

Peloponnese The Peloponnese ( ), Peloponnesus ( ; , ) or Morea (; ) is a peninsula and geographic region in Southern Greece, and the southernmost region of the Balkans. It is connected to the central part of the country by the Isthmus of Corinth land bridg ...

South Aegean

Contender Giorgos Hatzimarkos ( ND) defeated incumbent (ind.) in the second round and succeeded him as Regional Governor of the

South Aegean The South Aegean (, ) is one of the thirteen administrative regions of Greece. It consists of the Cyclades and Dodecanese island groups in the central and southeastern Aegean Sea. Administration The South Aegean region was established in ...

Thessaly

Incumbent Konstantinos Agorastos ( ND) defeated contender Nikos Tsilimingas ( DIMAR) in the second round and remained Regional Governor of

Thessaly Thessaly ( ; ; ancient Aeolic Greek#Thessalian, Thessalian: , ) is a traditional geographic regions of Greece, geographic and modern administrative regions of Greece, administrative region of Greece, comprising most of the ancient Thessaly, a ...

Western Greece

Incumbent Apostolos Katsifaras (ind.) defeated contender Andreas Katsaniotis ( Nea Dimokratia) in the second round and remained Regional Governor of

Western Greece Western Greece Region (, ) is one of the thirteen Modern regions of Greece, administrative regions of Greece. It comprises the western part of Central Greece (geographic region), continental Greece and the northwestern part of the Peloponnese pen ...

Western Macedonia

Contender Theodoros Karypidis (ind.), defeated incumbent ( ND) in the second round and succeeded him as Regional Governor of

Western Macedonia Western Macedonia (, ) is one of the thirteen Regions of Greece, administrative regions of Greece, consisting of the western part of Macedonia (Greece), Macedonia. Located in north-western Greece, it is divided into the regional units of Greece ...

Major municipalities

Athens Athens ( ) is the Capital city, capital and List of cities and towns in Greece, largest city of Greece. A significant coastal urban area in the Mediterranean, Athens is also the capital of the Attica (region), Attica region and is the southe ...

Thessaloniki Thessaloniki (; ), also known as Thessalonica (), Saloniki, Salonika, or Salonica (), is the second-largest city in Greece (with slightly over one million inhabitants in its Thessaloniki metropolitan area, metropolitan area) and the capital cit ...

Nationwide percentage results

Reaction

The elections were regarded as a victory for SYRIZA, which was not expected to perform well due to its weak local organization. Candidates backed by the ruling

New Democracy New Democracy, or the New Democratic Revolution, is a type of democracy in Marxism, based on Mao Zedong's Bloc of Four Social Classes theory in post-revolutionary China which argued originally that democracy in China would take a path that w ...

fared poorly, particularly Prime Minister

Antonis Samaras Antonis Samaras (, ; born 23 May 1951) is a Greek politician who served as Prime Minister of Greece from 2012 to 2015. A member of the New Democracy (Greece), New Democracy party, he was its president from 2009 until 2015. Samaras started his na ...

' hand-picked candidates. In Athens, New Democracy failed to make the runoff for the first time since 1975. In response the results, PM Samaras said "Greece must show it has the stability that it deserves" in the second round and European election scheduled to take place next week. Opposition leader

Alexis Tsipras Alexis Tsipras (, ; born 28 July 1974) is a Greek politician who served as Prime Minister of Greece from 2015 to 2019. A left-wing figure, Tsipras was leader of the List of political parties in Greece, Greek political party Syriza from 200 ...

said it was a "historic day", and that next Sunday would be "the first day of a new era."

Notes

References

{{Greek elections Local elections in Greece 2014 elections in Greece 2014 in Greek politics May 2014 in Greece