(ANSAmed) - ATHENS, MAY 18 - Voters in Greece, increasingly
disoriented after the inconclusive results of the elections held
on May 6 that left the parties unable to form a government
coalition, seem to have learned a lesson: acting on a surge of
anger leads to nothing, particularly when the country's position
in the EU is at stake and when the country needs to be rescued
from bankruptcy.
This is probably the reason, according to several analysts, why
the Greek voters are slowly moving back to the traditional
parties that have negotiated the economic agreements with
Greece's international lenders. This shift became apparent in
the most recent poll carried out on Wednesday and Thursday,
after the failed attempt by Greek President Karolos Papoulias to
form a unity government of technocrats and after the decision to
hold new elections on June 17.
According to this poll, New Democracy (ND) will get 26,1% of
votes (128 seats including 50 'bonus' seats for the party with
the relative majority), Syriza (the Coalition of the Left led by
Alexis Tsipras) 23,7% (around 70 seats). If this turns out to be
an accurate prediction, ND will have sufficient seats to form a
government with the socialist Pasok party, even if Pasok only
gets 10% of votes (30), which seems likely.
Meanwhile, the party leaders have resumed their negotiations
ahead of the new elections. The media report that Antonis
Samaras, leader of ND, and Dora Bacoyiannis, leader of the
Democratic Alliance (DA), are about to announce that their
parties will work together. The meetings between the leaders of
ND and of the far-right Laos party, led by Giorgos Karatzaferis
also continue. ND and AD are trying to work out their
differences over the form of collaboration: ND wants AD to be
dissolved and merge with ND but Bacoyiannis seems reluctant to
accept this option. There seems to be little progress in the
talks with Laos, although some ND members are talking with
several former Laos MPs.
Fotis Kouvelis, leader of the Democratic Left, has called Syriza
''a populist and irresponsible left-wing party that is openly
flirting with leaving the eurozone and returning to the
drachma''. He added that ahead of the elections, the right will
ask the question ''euro or drachma'' and Syriza ''Memorandum or
anti-Memorandum."
Today European Parliament President Martin Schulz visited
Athens, where he had a meeting with Greek President Karolos
Papoulias. Schulz said that he regrets the fact that Greece
seems to have a wrong perception of Europe at the moment. In his
view, this is caused by a lack of dialogue between European
decision makers and the Greek government. ''Much is being said
about the troika (EU, ECB, IMF)... but I don't like this. We
must have the opportunity to prove that we do not want to
subjugate Greece, but to help it," Schultz told the Greek
President. (ANSAmed).
