BLAGAROON

GREEK ELECTION SHOCK
FOR EUROCRAT BULLIES:


Michael Youlton (Campaign for a Social Europe) reports on the Greek
General election results:

Sunday’s parliamentary election results in Greece are the first sign that the entire political system in that country is in the process of recomposition. They signal the shattering and probably final destruction of the two party system, New Democracy (in the same European group as Fine Gael) and PASOK (in the same European group as the Labour Party) that has governed the country since the end of the military junta in 1974.

While all the late polls had indicated that the two parties would suffer a defeat, the final results went beyond any conceivable nightmare the two party leaderships may had imagined.Who would have thought that New Democracy, though first in preferences, would have received less than 20% of the votes, less than 15% from its latest election results and its worst percentage in its 40 year history?  PASOK, on the other hand, went even worse, getting just about 14% compared to the 44% it had received in the last elections.


The ND leader Mr Samaras, who provoked the early elections, arguing that his objective was to get enough votes to be able to govern on his own, must be feeling the pressure mounting around him. As, I’m, writing these lines, he is to visit the country’s President to get the instruction to form a government.-to follow.While New Democracy may be in the throes of its worst ever crisis, the situation with PASOK, the Party that led the country during the last 2 years of the crisis, and was in the headlines both for the first and the second bailout, is even worse. A party that had received 44% 2.5 years ago is now down to 14% and it’s almost impossible to conceive a growth process for it right now…..my view is that this social democratic organisation has completed its cycle and will have to give way to another political recomposed organisation that would assume the role of representing the soft left community from now on.
This is an issue that would be decided not by journalists or commentators but by PASOK party members in the not-so-far future.

The almost unexpected winner of the election has been the left organisation SYRIZA, a member of the European Left Group along with Sinn Fein and the ULA. Their peaceful anti-bailout line, with its parliamentary overtones, made the party climb from 4% to over 16% in the elections!! It expressed in the most eloquent way how the Greek people feel about the tragedy their country has been made the object of by the European austerity policies. Its leader, the 37-year old Mr AlexisTsipras, stated in national TV last night, that he is not prepared to co-operate in any possible way with New Democracy and PASOK, but that he wants instead to lead a Left Government.

The fact that SYRIZA, for the first time in its history, won almost double the votes of the old traditional Greek Communist Party (KKE) is in itself of significance as it opens the path for a recomposition of the Left in the country. Finally, of major significance is also the fact that the support of the  two pro-bailout parties, ND and PASOK, took a serious hammering in Athens, Piraeus and the surrounding areas - worst hit by the austerity imposed by the two bailouts.

The PASOK percentage in this politically sensitive area has not even reached 10% while the ND figures have hovered around 12-13%. This means that over 75% of the voters in this key area voted against the two-party system and the bailouts. It heralds the way for the developments to follow over the next few days because it’s inconceivable that Greece can be governed by a coalition against which 75% of the people living around the capital are clearly unhappy about.

Update:

Alexis Tsipras, leader of the new left bloc in the Greek Parliament has announced failure to agree a new coalition Government in Greece.

Addressing a meeting of the new Syriza parliamentary party last night, Mr Tsipras declared that his party had been given a  historic opportunity to overturn the politics of austerity in Greece and in Europe but, this chance had been denied by the country’s pro-bailout parties, conservative New Democracy and social-democrat Pasok.

“The new austerity measures and how they can be pushed through parliament are no longer in the spotlight. We have forced a discussion on our policies, which were backed by the people at the polls, and this is a great victory,”  Mr Tsipras stated.

“Our people now have a powerful weapon inside and outside parliament to assert their rights,” he told the meeting of 51 Syriza MPs. Mr Tsipras condemned the leaders of New Democracy and Pasok for acting like gamblers and bluffing, which, he said, contrasted with Syriza’s forthright and truthful approach.

Speaking after his meeting with Mr Tsipras, Pasok leader Evangelos Venizelos said the critical situation facing the country demanded he exhaust all avenues in trying to form a government. Mr Venizelos will now be asked by the President to try to form a new Government Coalition.

FearFeasa Mac Léinn

Áth Cliath/DUBLIN, 09 BEALTAINE/MAY, 2012.