Parliamentary elections were held in
Greece on 18 June 1989.[1] The liberal-conservative
New Democracy party of
Konstantinos Mitsotakis defeated
PASOK of
Andreas Papandreou. However, New Democracy could not form a government, since its 5% lead in the popular vote was not enough to reach a majority because of the
proportional representation system voted into electoral law by the previous PASOK government. An agreement between ND and
Synaspismos was made to form a short-term government of "katharsis", with a mandate to clean up the various scandals from the outgoing PASOK government.
Tzannis Tzannetakis was chosen as a compromise candidate to become Prime Minister, and an agreement was made that the coalition government would resign in October. This was the first, and as of 2024, only time the
Communist Party of Greece (as a part of Synaspismos) was part of a governing coalition.