1981 Greek legislative election

Parliamentary elections were held in Greece on Sunday, 18 October 1981. PASOK, led by Andreas Papandreou, faced New Democracy, led by Georgios Rallis. Papandreou achieved a landslide and PASOK formed the first socialist government in the history of Greece (in 1963 Centrists had formed a government under the leadership of George Papandreou, Andreas' father, but their party, Center Union, was not a socialist party but a centrist, social-liberal one).

1981 Greek legislative election

18 October 1981
All 300 seats in the Hellenic Parliament 151 seats needed for a majority
First party Second party Third party   Leader Andreas Papandreou Georgios Rallis Charilaos Florakis Party PASOK ND KKE Last election 25.34%, 93 seats 41.84%, 171 seats 9.36%, 11 seats Seats won 172 115 13 Seat change 79 56 2 Popular vote 2,726,309 2,034,496 620,302 Percentage 48.07% 35.88% 10.94% Swing 22.73pp 5.96pp 1.58pp
Prime Minister before election Georgios Rallis ND Prime Minister after election Andreas Papandreou PASOK

Observers had expected a PASOK victory but were surprised by the size of the victory.

185 of the 300 seats were won by PASOK or the Communist Party: both openly eurosceptic. This was the high point of Greek euroscepticism, coming just months after the country's accession to the European Communities.

Results

Party		Votes	%	Seats	+/–
	PASOK	2,726,309	48.07	172	+79
	New Democracy	2,034,496	35.88	115	–56
	Communist Party of Greece	620,302	10.94	13	+2
	Progressive Party	95,799	1.69	0	New
	Communist Party of Greece (Interior)	76,404	1.35	0	New
	KODISO–KAE	40,126	0.71	0	New
	Union of the Democratic Centre	22,763	0.40	0	–16
	Liberal Party	20,645	0.36	0	New
	Christian Democracy	8,638	0.15	0	New
	For a Revolutionary Left	6,595	0.12	0	New
	EKKE – M-L KKE	4,700	0.08	0	0
	International Workers' Union – Trotskyists	1,646	0.03	0	0
	Democratic Social Party	1,100	0.02	0	New
	Byzantine National Organisation	407	0.01	0	New
	Olympic Democracy	95	0.00	0	0
	Hellenic Universal Olympic Democracy	5	0.00	0	New
	National Refugee Party of Greece "Kimon"	2	0.00	0	New
	Independents	11,025	0.19	0	0
Total		5,671,057	100.00	300	0
Valid votes		5,671,057	98.57
Invalid/blank votes		82,421	1.43
Total votes		5,753,478	100.00
Registered voters/turnout		7,059,778	81.50
Source: Nohlen & Stöver

Aftermath

Papandreou's new government introduced several interesting reforms in the wake of its victory (legalization of civil wedding, new family law, nationalization of certain private companies, etc.).

The main opposition party, New Democracy, faced serious internal conflicts. Georgios Rallis was forced to resign after the defeat and he was succeeded by Evangelos Averoff, former minister under Karamanlis governments. In 1984 Averof resigned because of health problems and Konstantinos Mitsotakis became the new leader of New Democracy. Noteworthy, Mitsotakis and Papandreou were both centrists before 1967 and they belonged to the same party, George Papandreou's Center Union. Nevertheless, they were strong opponents and they never liked each other. Papandreou was calling Mitsotakis "a defector, an apostate", because in 1965 he defected from the ruling Center Union and participated in a new government pleasing to Constantine II, who had just accepted George Papandreou's resignation after a serious disagreement between the King and the prime minister.