After Greek Deal Comes the Political Reckoning

by Costas Paris and Terence Roth

Wall Street Journal
February 7, 2012

The political leaders backing interim Greek Prime Minister Lucas Papademos are right now only €600 million away from having the cuts they need to meet the deficit-reduction demands that will secure Athens a new bailout.

The road leading here was built with higher taxes, pay cuts and lower pensions that have crippled households and have seven out of 10 Greeks saying enough is enough.

In most other countries, that would spell certain death for political parties supporting so much concentrated pain. With new Greek general elections as early as only two months away, the political landscape could become as dysfunctional as an austerity-trapped economy now in its fifth year of recession.

Of the three parties now backing Mr. Papademos’ deeply unpopular cutbacks, the Socialist, or Pasok, Party that ruled the country for most of the past 30 years has sunk to 11.1% in the polls according to the latest poll by the Star television channel in late January.

The center-right New Democracy party claims 21.7%. What is left is LAOS, a right-wing nationalist party, which at 5% is seeing its supporters melt away because of its compliance with decisions that have handed away Greek sovereignty to its creditors.

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