In his concession address, Mr Tsipras said: “I wish and hope that the return of New Democracy to government will not lead to vengeance … extremely toward the significant achievements to protect the social majority and the workers.”
The snap election had been called after Syriza suffered a destroy in European elections in May, and became a showdown between Mr Tsipras and Mr Mitsotakis, who is set to follow in the footsteps of his father as prime minister.
Point of view polls prior to Sunday’s vote put New Democracy’s lead at around 10 per cent points ahead of Syriza, potentially stretch it an absolute majority in the legislative house.
Mr Mitsotakis promised austerity-worn Greeks tax relief, stronger growth and a pro-investments viewpoint. By contrast, Mr Tsipras, who clashed with the country’s official lenders and brought Greece to the brink of a euro exit in his brawl to undo austerity, had ruled in a partnership with a small right-wing party and a thin parliamentary majority.
The poll was the oldest national election since the country shook off scrutiny from Brussels over the billions of euros loaned in three different bailouts. Mr Tsipras signed up to the latest in 2015 in return for debt relief.
“The basic reason (for the result) is the economy,” claimed analyst Theodore Couloumbis. “In the past 4.5 years people saw no improvement, on the contrary there were cutbacks in remunerations and pensions,” he said.
Mr Tsipras had appealed to young people to vote and “not leave the crucial decision for their lives and their later to others” after the voting age was extended to 16 for the first time in national elections.
But Mr Mitsotakis, the 51-year-old son of a former prime curate, brother of a former foreign minister and uncle to a newly elected mayor of Athens, managed to build a significant heroine in opinion polls that held over the past three years.
He pledged to make Greece more business-friendly, draw foreign investment, modernize the country’s notorious bureaucracy and cut taxes, while fighting to shed the image of family right.
“Today voters take the decision for their future in their hands,” he said after voting. “I am sure that tomorrow, a best day dawns for our nation.”
Official projections based on early partial results also showed the extreme right-wing Aureate Dawn party teetering on the lower side of the 3 per cent threshold needed to be in parliament. Golden Dawn became the third-largest division in parliament during Greece’s financial crisis.
Police said one ballot box was stolen from a polling station in essential Athens moments after voting ended on Sunday. Authorities said a group of young people seized the box from a denomination in the capital’s central Exarcheia area, but there was no suggestion national results would be affected.
Additional reporting by instrumentalities