May 7, 2012
Frustrated Greek voters on Sunday punished the country's two biggest parties. The vote represents a protest against draconian austerity and the massive influence the EU and IMF are having on the country. Even if fringe parties profited from this anger, though, no one in Greece really wants to abandon the euro.
Of course they did it. It had been clear for some time now that, during the first parliamentary election since the debt crisis struck, Greek voters would punish both of the two parties that have traditionally been the country's biggest: the conservative Nea Dimokratia (New Democracy) and the socialist PASOK. After all, the fates of these two parties are too closely linked to the country's catastrophic state.
Still, it remained unclear whether this punishment, which had been foretold in every poll, would merely be a warning issued by voters or if it would be a full-blown knockout for the two major parties.
It was something in-between the two that emerged on Sunday: A powerful flogging from voters, but not a knockout. ND remained the country's largest political force with 20.1 percent of the vote, the socialist PASOK party plunged from 44 percent to just 13.9 percent with the anti-bailout, leftist Syriza party sneaking in between the two with 16 percent of the vote. The right-wing extremist party Golden Dawn ended up with 6.8 percent and will enter parliament.
Despite heavy losses, the conservatives under Antonis Samaras emerged as the de facto victors. But without much of a plan, the party is hardly a convincing winner. Instead, Samaras insisted on his mantra "I want to govern alone" throughout much of the campaign. Having received a mere one in five votes cast, that mantra proved laughable.
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