Greece’s Socialists Win
Greece’s Socialist Party has defeated the New Democracy Party in the country’s national elections with enough seats to form a government:
ATHENS (Reuters) – Greece’s Socialists, who campaigned on a promise to inject a 3 billion euro ($4.36 billion) stimulus package into the economy, have won Sunday’s national election with enough seats to form a government.
Various analysts are quoted:
Voters gave a clear, strong mandate to (PASOK leader) George Papandreou, who will now have adequate power to fight the crisis. There is no if, there is no grey area.
PASOK won’t have a long period of grace. This percentage … is more the consequence of New Democracy’s collapse than a victory for PASOK. These voters won’t forgive it if it doesn’t respond immediately to the social and the economic problems the country faces and this could result to social tension.
A parliamentary majority means we will have political stability ahead. If the final tally gives socialists 155 seats, that’s a pretty decent majority.
The new government will have a mandate to go to Brussels and ask for more time to get Greece out of the excessive deficit procedure.
I think the only way to interpret this result is that this is a hard time for ruling parties. Neither right-leaning nor left-leaning parties have clear answers to the downturn and, indeed, whichever party would have won the election’s freedom of action would have been limited very severely by Brussels. If, as I expect, sluggish economic conditions persist for any significant period of time, it’s pretty likely the ruling parties in other countries will see a reversal of their fortunes.
“The only way to interpret this” in such a fashion is if you know absolutely nothing about Greek domestic politics.
People were not reflexively anti-incumbent in Greece. Rather, they were incredibly pissed at New Democracy’s incompetence and corruption–remember the Vadopedi monastery scandal?
Also, the country is basically run like Obama’s Chicago–the party apparatus controls a bunch of jobs. With Karamanlis on the ropes and a 20% unemployment rate, supporters see the possibility of a reverse spoils system. Had Karamanlis not been the Greek version of Richie Daley, he would still be in power.
As for the idea that “this is a hard time for ruling parties,” this is the most idiotic thing I have ever heard.
Just in the past week, the CU/CSP in Germany expanded its power in the Bundestag. Earlier in the month, Stoltenberg’s coalition won in Norway–the first time in 16 years that an incumbent Prime Minister won re-election. Hell, even the hated Berisha even won re-election in June and Socrates’ coalition hung on in Portugal.
If most European parties and their coalitions keep on winning elections, I am not sure how that constitutes a “hard time” for ruling parties.
I appreciate your comments, Triumph.
The context of this post is James’s previous post on the victories won by various center-right parties in European elections lately. I don’t think this is a general trend towards the center-right but rather an anti-incumbent sentiment.
The Greeks have long been famous for having developed Democracy.
Looks like the socialists will now have a chance to show the world what else the Greeks are famous for….No, not restaurants!
This is from a few years ago, but I think it explains a lot about Greece: