Sunday 6 May 2012

Greece: Reality Check with no Cheque

As results are coming in it look very hard for the two traditional parties PASOK and ND to form a stable and durable government. Few observations are in order:

ND 19%: The so far results indicate a huge defeat for Mr Samaras who insisted in having the elections. Although it maybe hard to be removed from the leadership of the party his time must be numbered.

SYRIZA 16%: The second party ahead of PASOK. One of the major winners of the night. It would be interesting to see if they would change their anti-european rhetoric now that they are a major force in Greek politics

PASOK 13%: Mr Venizelos failed to rejuvenate the fate of his party and although he is a powerful personality his future is also in doubt.

Independent Greeks: By far in my opinion the biggest winners of the night. Out of nowhere they are getting close to 10.5%. A right wing party that drew most of their votes from ND.

Golden dawn: This is the far right-fascist party. A very anti-everything party that for the first time enters the parliament with a whopping 7%.

Communist Party: One of the losers of the night as they failed to gain significantly from the disgruntled left vote.

It looks as if the smaller liberal parties are not getting enough votes to enter the parliament. The Greens are on the border line while DRASI (liberal) and DHSY etc have an uphill battle.

CONCULSION

One has to wonder how a European politician can justify paying taxpayers money to the Greeks when it looks that the Greeks do not want to be recipients of this aid. The reality check may come sooner rather than later once Greek politicians attempt to find money to pay salaries.
Greek banks have not been recapitalised and asking for the money to be released may be hard.
It also looks increasingly possible that there may be another election soon.