Greeks voted yesterday in a tough-to-predict general election that threatened to turn the crisis-hit country’s old political system on its head and bring eurozone turmoil back with a vengeance.
After two years of austerity cuts, polls show that voters will punish the two main parties, the left-wing Pasok and conservative New Democracy, for promising more savings in return for two bailouts worth 240 billion euros (US$314 billion).
Instead, about half of the vote could go to 30 smaller parties, raising the prospect of protracted coalition negotiations for likely poll winner Antonis Samaras of New Democracy (ND), or even fresh elections.
“I am going to vote for one of the small parties. I have had enough of ND and Pasok,” psychology student Maria, 22, said. “Ever since I was born, people have just voted for them.”
“We will see if the Greeks have enough sense to choose parties other than the two big ones that have left Greece in such a state,” doctor Efthimis Karadimas, 43, said at a busy polling center in the capital.
Both Pasok and ND have said they want the “troika” of the EU, IMF and European Central Bank (ECB) to cut Greece more slack in their bailout deals. Many of the smaller parties want to tear up the agreements.
“After two years of barbarism, democracy is coming home,” said Alexis Tsipras, the head of the leftist Syriza party, expected to pick up about 10 percent of the vote. “The people will send a loud and clear message to all of Europe.”
Pasok head Evangelos Venizelos, a former finance minister who helped negotiate Greece’s second bailout earlier this year, was booed as he voted in his constituency in Thessaloniki, with one heckler shouting “thief.”
Greece’s creditors, not least paymaster-in-chief Germany, the main proponent of austerity before growth — despite growing criticism across Europe — have little appetite to loosen the bailout terms, let alone consider a third rescue.
With Athens having committed to finding next month another 11.5 billion euros in savings through 2014, any ambition to renegotiate terms “suggests a degree of liberty they do not have,” Swiss bank UBS said in a research note.
In ominous comments widely quoted by Greek newspapers on Saturday, German Finance Minister Wolfgang Schaeuble said that if Greece’s new government deviated from its commitments, the country would “bear the consequences.”
As a result, it is Greece’s vote rather than France’s presidential election, also to be decided yesterday, which “weighs heavier” on investors’ minds, Credit Suisse director of research Valerie Plagnol said.
Holger Schmieding, economist at Germany’s Berenberg Bank, said that with a “high” chance that no stable government willing to implement more reforms can be formed, there was a 40 percent risk of a Greek eurozone exit this year.
However, outgoing Greek Prime Minister Lucas Papademos, head of a Pasok-ND coalition since November, said as he voted in Athens that he expected a new government to be formed “this week.”
“We are all agreed that these elections are most crucial. Everyone has to make a decision, not just on who will govern, but on what path the country will take in the coming decades,” the former ECB vice president said.
With Portugal and Ireland getting aid, and Italy and Spain on shaky ground, too, last year there were worries of some sort of break-up of the eurozone. These fears have subsided, but have not completely disappeared.
Greece has already written off a third of its debts and is in its fifth year of recession. One in five workers is unemployed, its banks are in a precarious position and pensions and salaries have been slashed by up to 40 percent.
Voters are also fed up with corruption and cronyism. Immigration has also become an issue, raising the prospect that the neo-Nazi Golden Dawn party may enter parliament for the first time in nearly 40 years.
“My aim is that the two big parties are kicked out of power. They have destroyed Greece,” Yannis, in his 40s, said as he cast his ballot.
RETHINK? The defense ministry and Navy Command Headquarters could take over the indigenous submarine project and change its production timeline, a source said Admiral Huang Shu-kuang’s (黃曙光) resignation as head of the Indigenous Submarine Program and as a member of the National Security Council could affect the production of submarines, a source said yesterday. Huang in a statement last night said he had decided to resign due to national security concerns while expressing the hope that it would put a stop to political wrangling that only undermines the advancement of the nation’s defense capabilities. Taiwan People’s Party Legislator Vivian Huang (黃珊珊) yesterday said that the admiral, her older brother, felt it was time for him to step down and that he had completed what he
Taiwan has experienced its most significant improvement in the QS World University Rankings by Subject, data provided on Sunday by international higher education analyst Quacquarelli Symonds (QS) showed. Compared with last year’s edition of the rankings, which measure academic excellence and influence, Taiwanese universities made great improvements in the H Index metric, which evaluates research productivity and its impact, with a notable 30 percent increase overall, QS said. Taiwanese universities also made notable progress in the Citations per Paper metric, which measures the impact of research, achieving a 13 percent increase. Taiwanese universities gained 10 percent in Academic Reputation, but declined 18 percent
CHINA REACTS: The patrol and reconnaissance plane ‘transited the Taiwan Strait in international airspace,’ the 7th Fleet said, while Taipei said it saw nothing unusual The US 7th Fleet yesterday said that a US Navy P-8A Poseidon flew through the Taiwan Strait, a day after US and Chinese defense heads held their first talks since November 2022 in an effort to reduce regional tensions. The patrol and reconnaissance plane “transited the Taiwan Strait in international airspace,” the 7th Fleet said in a news release. “By operating within the Taiwan Strait in accordance with international law, the United States upholds the navigational rights and freedoms of all nations.” In a separate statement, the Ministry of National Defense said that it monitored nearby waters and airspace as the aircraft
UNDER DISCUSSION: The combatant command would integrate fast attack boat and anti-ship missile groups to defend waters closest to the coastline, a source said The military could establish a new combatant command as early as 2026, which would be tasked with defending Taiwan’s territorial waters 24 nautical miles (44.4km) from the nation’s coastline, a source familiar with the matter said yesterday. The new command, which would fall under the Naval Command Headquarters, would be led by a vice admiral and integrate existing fast attack boat and anti-ship missile groups, along with the Naval Maritime Surveillance and Reconnaissance Command, said the source, who asked to remain anonymous. It could be launched by 2026, but details are being discussed and no final timetable has been announced, the source