On elections, absent voters, Samaras, Tsipras and Chrysi Avgi
Election swing leaves Greece teetering
Election swing leaves Greece teetering? Certainly. And the teetering will last a long time because the politicians promised voters the impossible during the campaign, but they won’t be able to deliver!
The highly fragmented election results certainly won’t produce a viable Greek government. Worse yet, the smaller Greek parties that have no chance of governing are making the situation worse by ranting against the European bailout program, hoping their ranting will give them a bigger slice of the Greek vote in the next elections, that won’t be far away — if not very soon! But German Chancellor Angela Merkel has made it clear that there won’t be any renegotiation of the existing bailout package, and foreign lenders who lost $103 billion of their investments to «Greek bailout haircuts» won’t accept more losses.
The Greek austerity measures are like the boulder of Sisyphus. The Greeks won’t be able to push it over the top, and get out of their austerity cave, either now or in the near future, no matter whom they vote for.
Nikos Retsos, retired professor
Yesterday strikes back
Thank you for a very informative article on Greek politics and political parties.
The key words are «our society is unused to issues of cooperation and compromise».
It is not only the politicians and people involved in public life that must learn to cooperate.
It is also society. We must learn to cooperate and take responsibility for our actions and promises.
Dina Hatzipavlu
Nederlands
Greek elections
So Mr Tsipras has rejected any overtures from ND. And of course he wants the cancellation of the austerity measures and the «barbaric» memorandum (his words).
My questions to him and his coalition are: Where were your voices and protests at the barbaric lying and thieving politicians, barbaric borrowing, barbaric overspending, barbaric fiddling of the books, barbaric corruption, barbaric tax evaders, barbaric bloated civil service? To name but a few.
It’s easy to now win votes by being anti-everything, playing on your fellow citizens’ anger, but can you deliver any better than your predecessors? I seriously doubt it.
Go ahead, undo all that’s been agreed with the troika, reverse the PSI haircut, tell Europe to shove it, and see how far you get.
As the saying goes, be careful what you wish for….
Mary-Ann Faroni
Zurich
Time to reap what you sowed
If the people of Greece are not capable of electing a party that will reform the country, Europe should toss the country out of the euro zone. There is no negotiating with terrorists and that, people of Greece, is what you have become to the rest of the world. Through your own ineptitude and corruption you have created the equivalent of a financial bomb, a bomb with which you now have the audacity to blackmail the rest of the world.
You and you alone are responsible for this situation. You who don’t pay taxes. You who have family and friends employed in silly public sector jobs. You who belong to militant and destructive unions that strangle business activity. You have created this mess.
In America, we have an official policy of not dealing with terrorists. As a strong power, this is the only way to prevent pathetic groups from exploiting us on a regular basis. You are the pathetic group, Greece. Not because God created you that way, but because of your culture and the choices you have made. There can be no rewards for terrible behavior. The best hope the world has to prevent future cheats and liars is to force such people to reap the bitter crop which they have sowed.
Peter O’Hara
Mr. Samaras
When I learned this morning from my Greek colleagues that Mr. Samaras would be granted only three days to form a government, I thought that it was quite a tight deadline for such a complicated election result. I had German politicians in mind that sometimes need several weeks before they are able to agree on a coalition program.
I imagined, naive as I am, that Mr. Samaras would get not too much sleep the next three days as he would have to speak with at least five possible other parties. Discussing, arguing and fighting for a compromise and a common program in order to form a government that would serve the vote of the country best.
Well, I obviously underestimated the abilities of Mr. Samaras as he was able to do «whatever possible to form a government» within just half a day.
I would find it more than fair that with the right to form the government being transferred to Syriza now, the 50-bonus seats would be transferred as well.
Mr. Samaras and ND don’t need them anymore.
Sebastian Schroeder
Patra
Papademos? Are you on some kind of drugs? Greece does not need a technocrat; Greece needs to take care of its people first and the rest of Europe second! Greece needs to renegotiate its bailout and interest rates. Greece needs to repay its private bondholders immediately.
Angie Venizelos
What I actually meant
Maybe half of Finnish people and politicians think that the money we give to Greek is not actually going toward helping Greeks but to some bankers.
The euro would destroy you. The euro is only a tool to absorb all your resources and enslave you. It is going to turn you into a third world country. If you choose well, I believe that Spain will be the first European third world country.
Mikko Keranen
The striking 40% of absent voters and other mysteries
To a foreigner, on top of the huge abstention in a crucial election, a few points of the elections strike me particularly: 1) Isn’t it amazing that while two months ago we read 65% of Greeks were for the euro, yesterday an article polled the post-election popularity of the new second party of Greece, SYRIZA, at 40%, while Venizelos is mentioned as the favourite would-be prime minister? ?Strange» is a euphemism, since the young leader of the upcoming (apparently!) party says he will search among his allies on the left of the political spectrum: of course anti-euro parties; and — if successful — that means a Eurozone exit (which I am sure Eurozone countries will find a» bonus», and huge relief at this point, of course!) 2) As amazing to me is the fact that my Greek friends yesterday — as Samaras after one day abandoned trying to form a coalition government — did not expect anyone succeeding better than him, and even argue that no leading politician — at this point — would like to be elected PM; and that Greece was heading for new elections this summer…
Can any editor explain the absent large %? And after (what seems to me to be more than a one-time protest vote against ND so much for democratic free speech. CA describe themselves as «Greek Patriots.» CA achieved an amazing electoral result.
CA is the result of the failures of PASOK and ND to guard the borders for the last 20 years and prevent crime in the centre of Athens. The Interior Ministry has publicly stated that 70% of all crimes in the centre of Athens are committed by illegal immigrants. In recent polls 60-80% of Greeks want the illegal immigrants out. We are now told by the Interior Ministry that between 100 and 300 illegal immigrants enter Greece every day. Illegal immigrants need to be deported unless there are genuine asylum claims.
How much air time did Democratic Alliance, the Ecological Greens and LAOS get on mainstream Greek media prior to the elections? And now all three are out. And lastly, the term «far right» is more appropriate than Neo fascists or Neo Nazis.
George Salamouras
Dolphins and turtles dying
As long as obviously nobody cares when, especially fishing boats «change» oil in open waters and dump their trash in the sea, the answer to the reason of dead animals washed ashore is not so difficult. Greeks and especially the responsible authorities will have to dramatically change their approach.
R. Zelenka
Blind egos
It’s not hunger that has got Greece these stupid election results but blind egos. All of Greek history for the last 100 years has been about Greeks refusing to acknowledge the reality of the world. Greeks took on Britain for the control of Cyprus at a time when Britain needed the «aircraft carrier» to control the Middle East, and, then in the eighties took on America who was at war with the Soviet Union to remove bases from Greece. NATO created the «Macedonian Republic» to counter Greek stupidity and blindness. Was there any Greek who was not shouting ?Yankee go home”? The Greek left had the option of migrating to Russia, but they all migrated to the capitalist countries. Why?
The Greek child-like perception and mind games about how the world should behave and the gibberish about the Germans said this and the French said X, are nothing but blind stupidity.
Where does the perception that other countries are obligated not to look after their own interests come from? If Greeks do not look after themselves no one else will.
The refusal of Greeks to look at the world and face reality is the only problem Greece has.
Greeks need to sow and reap to get the crop they want. If we Greeks sow rocks we will get rocks for a harvest, and we will have to feed rocks to our children.
Stupid Greeks have stupid politicians.
Why would any sane man or women go into Greek politics when the country only wants stealing monkeys? The politicians delivered what every Greek wanted, now there is no more to steal, and, half the country is threatening suicide.
The stupidity of every person that has been voted in is clearly shown by the refusal to form a government. Real governments are about tax collecting, maintaining infrastructure and hospitals to wipe people’s bums. The vulnerability of Greece is of no concern to the political egos.
The Emperor of Japan, to keep himself grounded to the reality of life, every year he rolls up his sleeves goes into a muddy field and plants a crop of rice with his own hands.
Most Greeks let alone the politicians look down on people who get their hands dirty.
Every Greek needs to remind the people they have voted for they want the country to function and stay alive as a state. Please do not make Greece another Cyprus.
Charilaos Lithoxopouilos
Manners
