May 6, 2012
Greeks began voting Sunday in the most important -- and dicey -- election race in decades, one that could help decide their future in the European Union and also the fate of the euro.
Opinion polls suggest that neither of the country’s two main parties have enough support to win an outright majority, setting the stage for a deadlocked parliament and heightened unease over whether Greece can stick to the tough conditions of the two international bailouts it has received.
It's the first national election here since Athens agreed to punishing levels of austerity in exchange for those rescue packages. The economy is now deep in recession, and the social fabric is fraying as living standards drop.
Most voters appear keen to put the boot to the two big parties they hold responsible for the country’s financial meltdown.
Surveys published before a two-week blackout ahead of the election showed Antonis Samaras and his conservative New Democracy party beating their opponents but not by enough to take power outright in parliament. The same polls suggested support for Evangelos Venizelos, the pugnacious former finance minister and newly elected head of the socialist PASOK party, plunging to as low as 12%, down 32 percentage points from the party’s landslide victory result in 2009.
"We're looking at the end of a political era in which the conservative and socialists dominated the political spectrum," said Dimitris Mavros, managing director of the MRB polling group. "Voter intent is clear: to demolish that system and produce a new, highly fragmented political kaleidoscope."
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