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All 300 seats in the Hellenic Parliament 151 seats needed for a majority | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Parliamentary elections were held in Greece on Sunday, 18 October 1981.[1][2] 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).
Observers had expected a PASOK victory but were surprised by the size of the victory.[2]
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.[3]