Prime minister concedes defeat to conservative opposition party in Greek election

Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras on Sunday conceded the country’s parliamentary election.

“The citizens have made their choice,” he said in a speech at Athens, according to the Associated Press. “We fully respect the popular vote.”

{mosads}Tsipras added that he called conservative opposition leader Kyriakos Mitsotakis to congratulate him on his victory.

Mitsotakis’ New Democracy party was comfortably winning Sunday’s election with over half the ballots counted, receiving 39.7% of the vote compared to 31.5% by Tsipras’ Syriza party, per AP.

That project would give New Democracy an outright majority because the winner receives 50 extra seats in parliament, according to BBC.

Mitsotakis told supporters in Athens Sunday that the election gave him a strong mandate for change.

“The country proudly raises its head again,” he told the crowd, saying he would be a president for all because Greeks were “too few to stay divided.”

Tsipras defeated the New Democracy party in 2015 with a promise to reverse austerity measures imposed after the Eurozone crisis.

However, he was forced to do a U-turn by the European Union and faced allegations of mismanagement.