Greek right a hostage to its own failures

by Joshua Chaffin

Financial Times
June 4, 2012

On June 17, Stathis Potamitis, managing partner at an Athens law firm, plans to break a promise he has kept since his participation in a 1970s clandestine student group that opposed Greece’s military dictatorship. He will vote for the right.

For Mr Potamitis, the choice – if unpleasant – is clear. He blames the centre-right New Democracy – one of the two parties to govern Greece since the junta fell in 1974 – for the corruption and mismanagement that precipitated Greece’s economic crisis. However, he fears that the alternative, the upstart Syriza (or Coalition of the Radical Left) would be worse.

“I’m now driven to the dreadful situation of having to vote for this man who is one of the causes of the problems we have right now,” he says, referring to Antonis Samaras, New Democracy’s leader. His friend, Niki Siropoulou, a marketing executive, is more succinct. “I have to vote for a complete idiot,” she says.

Frustration is simmering as voters consider their options before a pivotal contest that could determine whether the country shifts course after five years of economic crisis, and perhaps, its future in Europe.

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