Greeks vote in parliamentary elections | Demotix.com.

Voting procedure during greek parliamentary elections iof 17th June 2012

Tsipras casts his vote for parliamentary in elections | Demotix.com.

Alexis Tsipras casts his vote. A lot of media around the world covered the event!

Syriza’s Alexis Tsipras holds pre-election rally – Athens | Demotix.com.

Alexis Tsipras speaks to supporters during last pre-election rally before 17th June parliamentary elections in Greece.

Greek Parliamentary Elections 2012
On Sunday, new legislative elections were held in order to elect all 300 members to the Greek parliament in accordance with the constitution, after a coalition was unable to be formed in elections last month. The vote was a key moment in determining Greece’s continued membership in the Eurozone.

KEY PLAYERS

• New Democracy, conservative party led by Antonis Samaras;
• Coalition of the Radical Left (Syriza), left-wing group, led by Alexis Tsiparas;
• Panhellenic Socialist Movement (Pasok), socialist party led by Evangelos Venizelos;

The Winners? New Democracy: The Greek electorate nominally ruled in favor of remaining with the single currency, therefore accepting, in part, the implementation of the European bailout and the conditions associated. Syriza also increased its support but was unable to top New Democracy and acquire the 50 extra seats for doing so.

The Golden Dawn Party, a far right party, saw a slight reduction in its votes and seats but it maintained much of its support bettering the Communist Party, despite the recent controversial actions of its party members. Many commentators see the party’s entry into parliament as an indication of the dissention and struggle within Greece today.

Full Results of June 2012 elections

1. New Democracy – 29.66%, 129 seats (May 2012: 18.85%, 108 seats)
2. Syriza – 26.89%, 71 seats (16.78%, 52 seats) 
3. Pasok – 12.28%, 33 seats (13.18%, 41 seats) 
4. Independent Greeks – 7.51%, 20 seats (10.60%, 33 seats)
5. Golden Dawn – 6.92%, 18 seats (6.97%, 21 seats)
6. Democratic Left – 6.25%, 17 seats (6.11%, 19 seats)
7. Communist Party of Greece – 4.50%, 12 seats (8.48%, 26 seats)

THE CHARGE TO THE WINNING PARTY

Greek President Karolos Papoulias has mandated that Samaras form a coalition promptly, given the immediate need for stability. The New Democracy has to compose a coalition government to achieve a working majority, which in theory means securing 150 seats. With these latest results, the two parties obliged by the latest bailout to implement austerity conditions, New Democracy and Pasok, can now claim a majority with 162 seats. However, indications are that Samaras will attempt to bring other parties into the coalition, to reflect the need for national unity. Pasok are very keen for Syriza to be brought into such a coalition, although Tsiparas has made clear that they have no intention of doing so. This raises the prospect of a minority arrangement in which Pasok would support the government and its implementation of the current bailout, but would remain outside of government. Given the six-week deadline, if the New Democracy were to fail to form a coalition, the President would need to call new elections within 30 days but this is unlikely. Recent developments suggest that the most likely outcome would be a slimmed-down government of 15 ministers dominated by New Democracy with 2 or 3 Pasok ministers and the potential support of the Democratic Left party in parliament.

THE GERMAN DECISION

The German Chancellor Angela Merkel was notably the first European leader to contact Samaras upon hearing the results of the elections. Chancellor Merkel stated that she would “work on the basis that Greece will meet its European commitments”. In the initial period, the election results seem to have reduced demand for German securities as a refuge from Europe’s debt crisis. Samaras is likely to attempt to push for a renegotiable bailout plan and will attempt to use the volatility caused by Greek political instability as his main argument for why European leaders should accept it.

GRAND FINALE

The elections may prove to be a step forward for Greece; although, there is still growing uncertainty as to whether the situation could improve. Opposition parties who chose not to join the national government coalition led by New Democracy could hinder the government’s progress, whilst the support of those that do join may be dependent on the changing public mood.

The prevailing international opinion is that these most recent elections have put an end to the precarious political situation in Greece over the last months, but that all signs continue to point to an eventual departure of Greece from the Eurozone and the continued instability that will likely follow. For many European leaders, the time that is gained from this reprieve will be used to shore up those economies that are perilously close to conditions in Greece.

Click here to find out more about Greece

The election of François Hollande as the seventh President of the French Fifth Republic confirmed the Socialist’s popularity over the incumbent Nicolas Sarkozy of the Union for a Popular Movement (UMP). Sarkozy’s presidency of France will be the second shortest in recent French history, longer only (by two months) than Georges Pompidou whose death in 1974 prematurely ended his first term. Despite many polls leading up to the election suggesting a 6% lead for Hollande, the final result in the second round was slightly closer, with Hollande taking 51.6% of the vote. The first round of voting had also been very close between the two main candidates, with Hollande receiving 28.6% to Sarkozy’s 27.2%. The final result was the ninth occasion, out of twelve previous public elections, in which the winner of the first round of voting went on to win the second round as well. Hollande will take office today and becomes the second post-war Socialist French President, after François Mitterrand between 1981 and 1995. The first round of voting was also significant in showing a large portion of France, 17.9%, voting for the far-right Marine Le Pen and, 11.1%, voting for the far-left Jean-Luc Mélenchon. Some early polls for the upcoming parliamentary elections are actually showing the UMP leading the Socialists, which if translated into seats could present France with the possibility of another period of cohabitation, where the president is forced to appoint a Prime Minister of a rival party due their command of a parliamentary majority. There have been three previous periods of cohabitation in France, which have usually been an anchor on the powers and ambitions of the President, the most significant being that between President Mitterrand and Prime Minister Jacques Chirac between 1986 and 1988.

Whilst Greece also went to the polls at the same time as France, the Greeks are nowhere near close to deciding who will govern the country after the results provided no party with any real victory. New Democracy (ND) topped the poll but received less than a fifth of the vote and, even with an obligatory 50 seats bonus for topping the polls, controls only 108 seats in the 300 seat parliament. These seats, added to the meagre 41 seats and 13.2% of votes received by the Panhellenic Socialist Movement (PASOK), which had previously been Greece’s largest party, is still not enough to form a majority for the two main parties committed to implementing the reforms necessary to comply with the conditions of a European bailout. The ND leader, Antonis Samaras, was constitutionally obliged to make the first attempt at putting a government together, which he attempted to do by negotiating a “national salvation” coalition, but this failed. The torch was then passed by the Greek President to Alexis Tsipras, the leader of the Coalition of the Radical Left (SYRIZA) party who finished a surprising second in the election on a platform of anti-austerity and reform based on EU bailout conditions. Tsipras’ attempts were ultimately unsuccessful too and it is now up to Evangelos Venizelos from PASOK. If, eventually, no agreement can be reached between any of the seven parties that now have seats in parliament then it is likely that fresh elections will take place which, according to current polling, would see SYRIZA come out on top.

Other electoral developments in Europe include:

• Negotiations over the Dutch budget have proved too divisive for the government of the Netherlands with Prime Minister Mark Rutte handing his resignation to the Queen, prompting a general election that will take place in September. The governing coalition of the People’s Party for Freedom and Democracy (VVD) and Christian Democratic Appeal (CDA) had been relying on the support of the Party for Freedom (PVV) in parliament, which has now been removed following a disagreement over austerity measures to be implemented as part of this year’s Dutch budget. Early polls still put the VVD as the largest party, in fact they suggest that the party could increase its seat share, although polls also show strong popular feeling against austerity measures, which could feed into the hands of the PVV and others campaigning against such reforms.

• A hastily-formed government, led by Prime Minister Mihai-Razvan Ungureanu, has been ousted by the Romanian parliament after just three months in power. Ungureanu had replaced Emil Boc, of the Democratic Liberal Party (PD-L), in February and led a government consisting of the PD-L and the Hungarian Democratic Union of Romania. Yet, Ungureanu’s government’s support became more fragile following increasing support for a new opposition coalition, called the Social Liberal Union, which was formed last year and includes the Social Democratic Party (PSD), the National Liberal Party (PNL) and the Conservative Party (PC). Its leader, Victor Ponta, has now been appointed Prime Minister and will be expected to govern at least until November, when a general election is due in which he and his PSD party are expected to do well.

• The Czech government has survived a vote of confidence in parliament, but looks set to struggle to continue its control before general elections that are not due until May 2014. The coalition of the Civic Democratic Party (ODS), TOP 09 and Public Affairs led by Prime Minister Petr Nečas broke down last month following controversy surrounding the Public Affairs party and its leader, Vit Barta, who was last month handed an 18-month suspended sentence for bribing party colleagues. Nečas refused to continue to govern with the party but eventually a new agreement was reached with a group of MPs now formed around Karolina Peake, the deputy prime minister who has defected from Public Affairs, and this new agreement has been approved by parliament, albeit with a slim margin. Even with this new vote of confidence, the Czech government could struggle to resist calls for new elections with polls showing strong public support for the Czech Social Democratic Party, which are in fact already the largest party in parliament, and other left-wing, “anti-austerity” parties.

• The Hungarian parliament has confirmed Prime Minister Victor Orban’s nomination, János Áder as President. Áder is a member of the Prime Minister’s Fidesz Party which crucially has a large majority needed to comfortably elect a President. 262 from 307 votes casted (from a 386 seat parliament) were in favour of Áder to replace Pál Schmitt, who resigned last month after admitting to plagiarising his doctoral dissertation.

• Germany’s Chancellor Angela Merkel continues a trend of heavy local election defeats over the last year with possibly the most significant, and devastating, in North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany’s largest region with a population of almost 18 million people. Merkel’s Christian Democratic Union (CDU) party received just 26% of the votes down from 34%, received just two years ago, whilst the opposition Social Democratic Party (SDP) topped the poll with 39% and are expected to form a red-green coalition in the region with the Green party, which finished third with 12% of the vote. Regional elections in Schleswig-Holstein last week also saw the CDU receive their lowest vote share in over 50 years. A German general election is not due until late next year.

• Local elections in the UK have also seen the governing coalition parties, the Conservative Party and the Liberal Democrats, suffer a large drop in votes to the benefit of the opposition Labour Party. The Conservative Party received 31% of the vote, down from 35% last year and from 44% in 2008 when these local seats had last been contested, and although the Liberal Democrats increased their vote share to 16%, from 15% last year, this represented a 9% drop from their 2008 vote share meaning the loss of more than 300 local councillors. The Conservative Party were, however, more reassured by the victory of their candidate, Boris Johnson, in the London Mayoral elections over the Labour Candidate, Ken Livingston, which took place on the same day. Eleven local referendums also took place to decide whether or not certain cities wanted elected mayors in which just two, in Bristol and Doncaster, agreed.

My experience of modern Greece has always been that of a beautiful but extremely nervous and loud country—and especially in Athens I always get a headache. Same now with the election results.

Evidently, the ‘people’ wanted to express their anger. Their concerns and worries are legitimate and we must not forget that the majority of Greeks are paying a disproportionately heavy price for the mistakes of corrupt elites and the consistent failure of past administrations to govern and regulate. Still, their vote is an illustration of the pitfalls of democracy when elections are mindlessly treated as an occasion for protest rather than an opportunity to form and express an opinion.

Nonetheless, the results are interesting in a number of ways:

• There is no single party or two-party coalition considered capable of leading the country through this difficult period. This extent of fragmentation of political opinion is new for Greece and its Constitution is ill-designed to cope with it (in terms of provisions for transition governments and the like).

So much for the bad news. Now for the good ones:

• The majority of Greeks are definitely upset—yet they do not wish Greece to exit the European Union. With the exception of the fascists (6.9% of the vote) and the Soviet-style Communists (8.5%) none of the parties questions EU membership.

• All parties, including the two mainstream parties Nea Dimokratia (18.9%) and PASOK (13.2%), are unhappy with the austerity packages negotiated with the EU and the IMF. Yet only Syriza or the Radical Left (16.8%) proposes complete or near-complete default on payments. In this respect, their message has been very misleading: their electoral program fails to acknowledge the bailouts already agreed upon earlier this year.

• The two other parties which are represented in the Parliament, namely the party of Independent Greeks (10.6%) and the Democratic Left (6.1%), rather wish a re-negotiation of the strict IMF conditions and, more so, programs to stimulate economic growth. In the meantime this is what most Europeans (and their governments) also want.

It follows that there are at least three possible and viable coalition governments: (a) between Nea Dimokratia, PASOK and Independent Greeks (total 182 seats); (b) between Nea Dimokratia, PASOK and Democratic Left (total 168 seats); (c) between all four (total 201 seats).

If none of the above materializes, then this is because the various political parties consider they have more to gain from new elections in a month’s time. But that would be equivalent to playing roulette with no dice, especially insofar as the new and/or small parties are concerned. This is because the most likely outcome of new elections is a small shift in favor of those two parties willing to govern, namely Nea Dimokratia and PASOK.

Watch five stories from the Greek Parliamentary elections of 6th May 2012. The elections were supposed to be the most important since the fall of dictatorship in 1974, due to latest austerity measures. They are considered to change the route of Greece inside EU…or not? Time will tell!

Enjoy!

http://www.demotix.com/news/1198150/greeks-vote-greek-parliament-elections-athens

http://www.demotix.com/news/1197442/giorgos-karatzaferis-casts-vote-greek-elections-athens

http://www.demotix.com/news/1197437/alexis-tsipras-casts-vote-greek-parliamentary-elections-athens

http://www.demotix.com/news/1197416/louka-katseli-casts-vote-greek-parliamentary-elections-athens

http://www.demotix.com/news/1197388/fotis-kouvelis-casts-vote-greek-elections-athens