Greeks vote in critical poll
18 Jun 2012 1:40 AM GMT
Greeks fed up with austerity voted on Sunday in elections that could decide their future in the eurozone amid unprecedented external pressure not to vote for a radical leftist party.
Some 9.8 million Greeks began voting in a showdown between the conservative New Democracy party and the anti-austerity Syriza party that has spooked European leaders and the markets.
The man at the centre of the storm, Syriza leader Alexis Tsipras, said his side would win and Greece would keep its place as an ‘equal’ member in a ‘changing’ Europe.
‘We have conquered fear,’ Tsipras told a room packed with reporters from around the globe, an apparent reference to criticism that his threat to scrap a multi-billion EU-IMF loan agreement endangers Greece's eurozone membership.
‘On Sunday we open a path to hope, to a better future,’ the 37-year-old former student leader said after casting his vote in the working-class Athens district of Kypseli. ‘We will win,’ Tsipras said.
Greek newspapers said the vote was the most critical since the end of military rule in 1974, as conservative chief Antonis Samaras argued that a ‘new era’ would begin for the recession-hit eurozone state on Monday.
‘On Sunday the Greek people speak. On Monday a new era starts for Greece,’ Samaras said in his hometown of Pylos in the southern Peloponnese peninsula.
The To Vima weekly spoke of a ‘salvation ballot,’ warning of a ‘visible danger’ that Greece will leave the eurozone.
‘A vote on the euro, Greece in its most critical electoral confrontation,’ headlined the Ethnos daily.
‘This moment is very critical. This is an election that makes people very, very anxious,’ said 62-year-old pensioner Andreas Pappas after casting his ballot at an elementary school in central Athens.
‘On Monday the country must have a government,’ warned Socialist leader Evangelos Venizelos, seen as the most likely partner for the Conservatives in a coalition government.
‘The only government that can take the country out of the crisis ... is a government of national co-responsibility.’Â
‘We must have a strong united front and international credibility to achieve the best for Greeks, inside the eurozone, whilst keeping all that is positive in the loan agreement, all that is positive about the country's European character,’ Venizelos said.
German Chancellor Angela Merkel on Saturday said it was ‘extremely important’ for Greeks to elect lawmakers who would respect the terms of the bailout, which Tsipras insists will be ‘history’ on Monday Eurogroup chief Jean-Claude Juncker also warned on the eve of the momentous vote - the second in six weeks after May 6 elections failed to produce a government - that choosing Syriza could have ‘unpredictable’ consequences for the eurozone as international markets watched with bated breath. Many Greeks would grudgingly admit Juncker has a point.
‘We signed something [the bailout deal]. We can't just take it back,’ said 68-year-old Emmanuel Kamkoutis after voting for a centre-right party.
Voting ends at 1600 GMT, with exit polls also due out then and the first indicative results expected at around 1900 GMT.
Germany's Bild newspaper added to tensions ahead of the vote with an open letter telling Greeks their ATMs had euros only because ‘we put them there.’
‘If the parties who want to be through with austerity and reforms win the election and contravene every agreement, we will stop paying,’ it said.
Some 9.8 million Greeks began voting in a showdown between the conservative New Democracy party and the anti-austerity Syriza party that has spooked European leaders and the markets.
The man at the centre of the storm, Syriza leader Alexis Tsipras, said his side would win and Greece would keep its place as an ‘equal’ member in a ‘changing’ Europe.
‘We have conquered fear,’ Tsipras told a room packed with reporters from around the globe, an apparent reference to criticism that his threat to scrap a multi-billion EU-IMF loan agreement endangers Greece's eurozone membership.
‘On Sunday we open a path to hope, to a better future,’ the 37-year-old former student leader said after casting his vote in the working-class Athens district of Kypseli. ‘We will win,’ Tsipras said.
Greek newspapers said the vote was the most critical since the end of military rule in 1974, as conservative chief Antonis Samaras argued that a ‘new era’ would begin for the recession-hit eurozone state on Monday.
‘On Sunday the Greek people speak. On Monday a new era starts for Greece,’ Samaras said in his hometown of Pylos in the southern Peloponnese peninsula.
The To Vima weekly spoke of a ‘salvation ballot,’ warning of a ‘visible danger’ that Greece will leave the eurozone.
‘A vote on the euro, Greece in its most critical electoral confrontation,’ headlined the Ethnos daily.
‘This moment is very critical. This is an election that makes people very, very anxious,’ said 62-year-old pensioner Andreas Pappas after casting his ballot at an elementary school in central Athens.
‘On Monday the country must have a government,’ warned Socialist leader Evangelos Venizelos, seen as the most likely partner for the Conservatives in a coalition government.
‘The only government that can take the country out of the crisis ... is a government of national co-responsibility.’Â
‘We must have a strong united front and international credibility to achieve the best for Greeks, inside the eurozone, whilst keeping all that is positive in the loan agreement, all that is positive about the country's European character,’ Venizelos said.
German Chancellor Angela Merkel on Saturday said it was ‘extremely important’ for Greeks to elect lawmakers who would respect the terms of the bailout, which Tsipras insists will be ‘history’ on Monday Eurogroup chief Jean-Claude Juncker also warned on the eve of the momentous vote - the second in six weeks after May 6 elections failed to produce a government - that choosing Syriza could have ‘unpredictable’ consequences for the eurozone as international markets watched with bated breath. Many Greeks would grudgingly admit Juncker has a point.
‘We signed something [the bailout deal]. We can't just take it back,’ said 68-year-old Emmanuel Kamkoutis after voting for a centre-right party.
Voting ends at 1600 GMT, with exit polls also due out then and the first indicative results expected at around 1900 GMT.
Germany's Bild newspaper added to tensions ahead of the vote with an open letter telling Greeks their ATMs had euros only because ‘we put them there.’
‘If the parties who want to be through with austerity and reforms win the election and contravene every agreement, we will stop paying,’ it said.
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