Monday, May 7, 2012

Greek elections

Greek voters on Sunday (6 May) punished the two ruling parties responsible for the last EU bail-out and its austerity measures by giving the radical left the second highest number of votes and allowing a neo-Nazi party into the legislature for the first time.
Early official results after 10 percent of the votes were count show that the centre-right New Democracy party has gained the most votes (19.2%) but it is not enough to re-make the current ruling coalition with the Social Democrats (Pasok). Instead, Syriza, a coalition of radical left parties (16.3%) opposing the austerity rules of the €130 billion bail-out, but in favour for Greece to stay in the eurozone, pushed Pasok into third place. The right-wing Independent Greeks, a splinter party from New Democracy also openly against the bail-out, scored over ten percent. 
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Vying with Syriza as the biggest news of the election is the score of the neo-Nazi Golden Dawn party. It is to hold 21 seats in the parliament after it convinced almost seven percent of the voters.  The Communist Party and the Democratic Left - bolstered by defections from Pasok - also scored above the five-percent threshold. They may be drawn into a leftist government if Samaras fails to form a majority and Syriza leader Alexis Tsipras is given the same task.
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