The largely ceremonial president is elected by a parliamentary supermajority for a five-year term. The prime minister is chosen by the president and is usually the leader of the largest party in the parliament. ND leader Kyriakos Mitsotakis secured a second consecutive term as prime minister after the June 2023 elections. Katerina Sakellaropoulou, a longtime judicial official who had been nominated by ND but was also supported by the Coalition of the Radical Left (SYRIZA) and the center-left Panhellenic Socialist Movement–Movement for Change (PASOK–KINAL), was elected president in 2020.

The ND led subnational elections that were held in October 2023, winning governors’ races in eight of Greece’s 13 regions and mayoral races in many municipalities. However, ND incumbents lost the mayoral elections in Athens and Thessaloniki, the country’s two largest cities.

The 300 members of the unicameral Hellenic Parliament are elected to serve four-year terms through a mixture of single-member constituencies, multimember constituencies, and a national constituency with 15 seats. Under the electoral law in effect for the June 2023 elections, the party with the most votes received up to 50 bonus seats, making it easier to form a governing majority.

Parliamentary elections held in May 2023 failed to produce such a majority, triggering fresh elections under the new rules in June. In this balloting, ND won a single-party majority of 158 seats. SYRIZA placed a distant second with 47, followed by PASOK-KINAL with 32 and the Communist Party of Greece (KKE) with 21. The radical-left Course of Freedom secured 8 seats, and for the first time since the 1974 transition to democracy, three far-right parties gained parliamentary representation: Greek Solution and Spartans both took 12, while Victory won 10.

The country generally has fair electoral laws and equal campaigning opportunities. A compulsory-voting system is not strongly enforced. If passed with a two-thirds supermajority, changes to electoral law are implemented for the following elections. If passed with a simple majority, they go into effect after the following elections.

An electoral law passed by a SYRIZA-led government with a simple majority in 2016 abolished the 50-seat bonus awarded to the winning party in parliamentary elections, and was set to take effect after the 2019 elections. In 2020, the ND government secured passage of legislation that would restore a bonus system, awarding between 20 and 50 bonus seats to the leading party depending on its share of the national vote. The new law also passed with a simple majority, meaning it would take effect only after the next elections. The system was thus applied for the first time in the June 2023 elections, and ND succeeded in obtaining all 50 bonus seats.

In 2019, the ND government passed a law expanding the voting rights of diaspora and overseas Greek citizens. Citizens living abroad could participate in elections if they proved residency in Greece for a two-year period within the last 35 years, among other requirements. In July 2023, the ND government secured passage of a law that removed such restrictions, allowing voters abroad to participate after completing a simple registration process.

The political system features vigorous competition among a variety of parties. Eight parties won seats in Parliament in the June 2023 elections, and many others competed but did not pass the 3 percent vote threshold for representation.

Greece has established a strong record of democratic transfers of power between rival parties, with PASOK and ND alternating in government for most of the past five decades. While various multiparty coalitions formed governments in 2012 and 2015, ND’s 2019 victory returned the country to a pattern of single-party majorities. Nevertheless, opposition parties scored important victories in the October 2023 municipal and regional elections.

No group or institution from outside the political system exerts undue influence over the choices of voters and candidates.

Greece’s largest recognized minority population, the Muslim community of Thrace, has full political rights, and four members of the community won seats in the June 2023 parliamentary election, even though one candidate decided to withdraw amid criticism of his alleged links to the local Turkish consulate and his descriptions of the minority group as “Turks of western Thrace.” The authorities have rejected some ethnic groups’ attempts to secure official recognition or to register associations with names referring to their ethnic identity, affecting their ability to organize and advocate for their political interests, though such associations are generally able to operate without legal recognition. Since 2010, documented noncitizen immigrants have been allowed to vote in municipal elections.

Though there are no significant legal or practical barriers to women’s political participation, women in 2023 held only 23 percent of the seats in Parliament, and sexist and patriarchal attitudes dissuade their active participation. In 2020, Katerina Sakellaropoulou became the first woman to be elected as president of Greece.

LGBT+ citizens have participated more openly in politics in recent years, with larger numbers of candidates contesting the 2023 national and subnational elections and the first openly gay member of Parliament taking office in June. In September, SYRIZA chose Stefanos Kasselakis, a gay man who had married abroad, to succeed Alexis Tsipras as party leader.

Greek elected officials generally set and implement government policies without undue interference.

Corruption remains a problem in Greece, and institutions tasked with combating it have inadequate resources. Tax officials in past years have been implicated in tax evasion schemes, which seriously complicate the government’s fiscal reform efforts. A criminal code and code of criminal procedure adopted in 2019 allowed prison time for the bribery of politicians and were more broadly aligned with relevant international conventions. However, the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) expressed serious concerns that the main active bribery offense was converted from a felony to a misdemeanor.

In 2021, a special committee was created to investigate accusations that former digital governance minister Nikos Pappas had received bribes and rigged a television licensing competition. A special court, comprising judges from the Supreme Court and the Council of State, handed down a unanimous verdict in February 2023, finding Pappas guilty for his handling of the tender process for television licenses in 2016. He was given a suspended sentence of two years in prison.

In 2022, former justice minister Dimitris Papangelopoulos was referred to the Supreme Court for a series of interventions he made in the judiciary while in office. In March 2023, he was found guilty on two charges of dereliction of duty by a special court, which imposed a €10,000 ($10,900) fine. Also that month, the same court acquitted the former head of the corruption prosecutor’s office, Eleni Touloupaki, in an abuse-of-power case related to her failure to send a report to Parliament on alleged misconduct by a former health minister and his deputy.

Several laws and government programs are designed to ensure the transparency of official decisions and provide public access to information. Officials are required to make public declarations of their assets and income. Nonetheless, implementation of these regulations is problematic.

The transparency of state procurement contracts remains a concern, and spending that is considered confidential—meaning related contracts are not accessible on a public register—has increased in recent years. Access to information about public debtors has improved, however. After several delays, in August 2023 authorities released the names of individuals and legal entities that owe the public sector more than €150,000 ($163,000).

The government’s handling of a major surveillance scandal has raised further questions about official transparency. In 2022, a series of media investigations and reports by the Hellenic Authority for Communication Security and Privacy (ADAE) revealed that dozens of politicians, journalists, entrepreneurs, and defense and police officials had been targeted for electronic surveillance, with state authorities suspected of using the commercial spyware product Predator to access their mobile phones. The government defended the legality of the actions to which it admitted, citing national security, though the chief of the EYP and the general secretary to the prime minister resigned over the wiretapping of PASOK-KINAL leader Nikos Androulakis.

During 2023, a number of officials attempted to hamper ongoing investigations into the surveillance scandal by the ADAE and the Hellenic Data Protection Authority (HDPA). In January, the Supreme Court prosecutor issued a legal opinion arguing that the ADAE could not conduct audits of telecommunications companies to determine who was under surveillance, and did not have the authority to manage citizens’ requests for information on such monitoring. The opinion also referred to penalties of up to 10 years in prison for those who violate the procedure provided for by the law.

In September, shortly before the ADAE leadership was expected to propose a €100,000 ($109,000) fine against the EYP for withholding crucial information, the speaker of Parliament moved to replace two members of the ADAE board and promote a third member who was seen as more favorable to the government. The new ADAE board resisted the execution of an investigating prosecutor’s order to confirm whether the list of individuals targeted with Predator were simultaneously monitored by the EYP, which would strongly link the intelligence service—and thus the prime minister, who oversees it—to the Predator spying campaign. In October, the Supreme Court prosecutor’s office removed the case from the first-instance prosecutor, and summoned a group of ADAE officials for questioning on suspicion that they had illegally leaked information to a wiretapping victim.

At year’s end, no person implicated in the surveillance scandal had been charged or prosecuted.

The constitution includes provisions guaranteeing freedom of the press, and these are generally upheld in practice, though the law imposes some limits related to defamation, hate speech, and other such content. While citizens continue to enjoy access to a broad array of print, broadcast, and online news outlets, ownership concentration and editorial interference from owners remain concerns, and the government has been accused of directing public funds toward friendly private media. Independent investigative journalism groups, opposition-oriented outlets, and Greek journalists working for international news services have been instrumental in shedding light on the spyware scandal that emerged in 2022.

Journalists have at times been subject to assaults or other reprisals, particularly while attempting to cover sensitive stories related to corruption, immigration, or the spyware scandal. Some reporters working on the scandal faced government attempts to discredit them. The former general secretary to the prime minister, Grigoris Dimitriadis, filed defamation lawsuits against media outlets and journalists following his resignation in 2022.

The constitution guarantees freedom of religion, and this is generally respected in practice. However, the Orthodox Church of Greece—which has a special constitutional status as the “prevailing religion” of the country—receives government subsidies, and its clergy’s salaries and pensions are paid for by the state. The constitution prohibits proselytizing, but this restriction is rarely enforced. Members of some minority religions face discrimination and legal barriers, such as permit requirements to open houses of worship.

There are no significant constraints on academic freedom in Greece, and the educational system is free of political indoctrination. A 2021 law introduced police forces to some university campuses in an effort to fight crime, a long-standing problem in some institutions. Delays in the implementation of the policy reflected the government’s ambivalence in light of protests and violence in opposition to such deployments.

Individuals are generally free to engage in personal expression and discuss their views without reprisal. However, incomplete investigations into the spyware scandal that emerged in 2022 have left unanswered questions as to the full extent of the government’s domestic surveillance campaign, exactly which agencies or officials were responsible, how any collected information is being stored, and who might have access to the data. Such uncertainties may have deterred many known or potential victims from speaking openly about the scandal, particularly given that no one in positions of authority had faced punishment at the end of 2023.

Score Change: The score declined from 4 to 3 due to a wide-ranging surveillance scandal that allegedly left the personal data of at least dozens of targeted politicians, businesspeople, journalists, and others in the possession of state officials.

Freedom of assembly is guaranteed by the constitution, and the government generally protects this right.

Nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) generally operate without interference from the authorities. However, in 2020 the government made a series of changes to the registration requirements for organizations working on asylum and migration issues, effectively increasing the regulatory burden on NGOs.

Most workers have the right to form and join unions, bargain collectively, and strike. The law provides protections against discrimination toward union members, and the government generally upholds union rights.

The judiciary is largely independent, though its autonomy is undermined somewhat by corruption. Judges are appointed by the president on the advice of the Supreme Judicial Council, which is mostly composed of other judges. They serve until retirement age and cannot be removed arbitrarily.

The law provides safeguards against arbitrary arrest and detention, ensures access to defense counsel, and provides for fair trial conditions. Persistent problems include court backlogs that lead to prolonged pretrial detention as well as improper detention of asylum seekers.

While overall rates of violent crime are low, there are occasional acts of politically motivated violence and vandalism by left- or right-wing extremist groups. Some prisons and detention centers suffer from substandard conditions, and law enforcement personnel have been accused of physical abuse, particularly against vulnerable groups such as migrants and asylum seekers.

Experts raised concerns during 2023 about a recent increase in criminal activity by minors and related confrontations with police. In November, a Romany teenager died after being shot by a police officer, marking the third incident of its kind in as many years.

Women generally enjoy equality before the law, though they continue to face workplace discrimination in practice.

Violence targeting immigrants, refugees, and LGBT+ people remains a problem. Romany individuals are also subject to discrimination and abusive policing despite legal protections.

Greek authorities have been accused of forcibly returning migrants and asylum seekers who attempt to enter irregularly from Turkey by land and sea, and cases of such pushbacks continued to be documented in 2023. The European Anti-Fraud Office (OLAF) found in 2022 that the European Border and Coast Guard Agency (FRONTEX) had routinely covered up illegal pushbacks of migrants and asylum seekers by the Greek coast guard. The Greek government has denied these allegations. In June 2023, a vessel carrying migrants sank in international waters near southwestern Greece, killing some 600 people, despite the presence of the Greek coast guard. Investigations into the service’s possible liability were ongoing at year’s end.

Freedom of movement is generally unrestricted for most residents.

The government and legal framework are generally supportive of property rights and entrepreneurship, but bureaucratic obstacles can inhibit business activity. Those who have political connections or are willing to pay bribes can sometimes expedite official procedures. To pressure tax-evading property owners who misrepresent the value of their assets, the Independent Authority for Public Revenue announced significant fines for this offense in 2019.

There are no major constraints on personal social freedoms, though domestic violence remains an important problem. The government and civil society have advanced initiatives to acknowledge and raise awareness of violence against women. Victims and survivors have access to counseling centers and a growing number of specialized police units. A 2023 monitoring mission for the Council of Europe’s Convention on Preventing and Combating Violence against Women and Domestic Violence (Istanbul Convention) praised Greece’s progress on the issue but called for further resources, citing a lack of shelter capacity and low conviction rates, among other concerns.

Most residents enjoy legal protections against exploitative working conditions, but labor laws are not always adequately enforced. Migrants and asylum seekers are especially vulnerable to trafficking for forced labor or sexual exploitation, and government efforts to combat the problem, while increasing, remain insufficient, according to the US State Department.