Tsipras admits defeat

(Patria) - Outgoing Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras admitted defeat in parliamentary elections on Sunday, and the leader of the winning New Democracy, Kyriakos Mitsotakis, promised to boost the economy after the crisis Greece has survived.

The first official results show that Greeks, in the first parliamentary elections since the country avoided bankruptcy, have chosen 51-year-old Mitsotakis as the future head of government.

His New Democracy received 39.7 percent of the vote compared to 31.4 percent for Tsipras's Syriza, according to the first official partial results from more than 50 percent of polling stations.

The defeated Tsipras congratulated his conservative opponent in a phone call.

In the Greek parliament, conservatives will have 158 out of 300 seats, while Syriza will retain only 86 out of the 144 it had previously.

Three years after taking over the leadership of the conservative party, Kyriakos Mitsotakis, who is seen as a reformer close to business circles, promised to "boost the economy and leave the crisis behind".

The election of Mitsotakis, the son of a prime minister and descendant of a political dynasty, marks the return of "familocracy" to the Greek government, a tradition that Alexis Tsipras broke when he came to power at the age of 40.

Although Greece has managed to stimulate economic growth, its unemployment rate of 18 percent is the highest in the eurozone.