Leading Greece Parties Suffer Crushing Elections Defeat

Greek people, angered by tough bailout conditions, cast mostly penalty ballots in the country's general elections on Sunday. Photo by BGNES

Greece's two governing parties, which supported tough austerity measures in the midst of a debt crisis, have been crashed and lost their parliamentary majority in Sunday's election.

With almost all votes counted, the center-right New Democracy is leading with 19%, down from 33.5% in 2009. The new left-wing anti-bailout Coalition of the Radical Left (SYRIZA) is in second place with 16.7%. The center-left PASOK slipped to third place with 13.2%, down from 43.9% in the last elections. Syriza, PASOK and New Democracy have been in coalition since last November.

The new right-wing Independent Greeks is fourth with 10%. The neo-Nazi Golden Dawn party could enter parliament for the first time if their tally of almost 7% holds up, BBC reports Monday.

There is staggering discontent among Greek people over the austerity measures imposed by the government in return for international bailouts.

New Democracy leader Antonis Samaras said he would form a national salvation government to keep the country in the Eurozone, but would seek to revise the bailout agreement in order to boost growth.

However, Syriza leader Alexis Tsipras stated he wanted to form a left-wing coalition rejecting the terms of Greece's bailouts while PASOK leader and former Greek Finance Minister Evangelos Venizelos called for a broad coalition government of pro-European parties.

PASOK was in power when Greece negotiated the terms of its 2010 bailout of EUR 110 B and was in a coalition with New Democracy when it secured the 2012 EUR 130 B deal.

Coalition negotiations can take place over three days. If they fail, the party in second place can try to form a coalition, and if still unsuccessful, the third party will receive the mandate.

Calculations have shown that the two pro-bailout parties would struggle to achieve majority in the 300-seat Parliament.

If still no coalition emerges, Greece will hold another election - a prospect which would rattle the country's international creditors. Under the current plan, an additional EUR 11 B savings in spending are due to be found in June.

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