Nine new hands and 12 old ones heading to Strasbourg

With a few exceptions, Greeks chose people they knew to represent the country in the European Parliament on Sunday. They voted chiefly for existing MEPs, television presenters and career politicians. So who are the 15 men and six women headed to Strasbourg?

Of the 21 new MEPs, nine have already represented the country in the European Parliament. Vangelis Meimarakis (with 260,348 votes at the time of writing), a lawyer and former minister and president of the ruling New Democracy party, has been an MEP since 2019. An MEP since 2014, lawyer and former MP Eliza Vozemberg (246,962) was elected for a third time with the conservatives, as was another former MP with ND, Manolis Kefalogiannis (162,075).

From the main opposition SYRIZA, two MEPs were re-elected for a second term: Kostas Arvanitis (154,433), a journalist who also earned the biggest number of votes in the party...