Anti-bailout and anti-austerity forces in Greece and , indeed, across Europe have certainly every reason to rejoice after the results of yesterday's snap election.
What seems strange is that the losers are also trying to portray themselves as anything but. The outgoing “New Democracy” ruling party tries to find solace that it held close to the percentage they had in the previous elections, losing only 2 percentage points. They try to point out that this is an achievement by itself, given the unpopular policies they had to implement.
Leaving the obvious aside (another party, deeply hostile to what New Democracy represents, is now in power) it is position difficult to defend.
With 27.8% of the vote, almost 9 percentage points below the winner, SYRIZA, they reached a minimum. Not because of this is the percentage of Greek voters who agree with their policy but because this is the number of voters that didn't want a party of the radical left to come to power for the first time in Greece (and in Europe).
In fact they did not get all the right wing votes. Their disastrous handling of almost everything led to the extremely worrying phenomenon of a far right party, “Golden Dawn” coming third in the elections.
Some call “Golden Dawn” a “phantom” party, because during these elections it was all but invisible. It's leadership is in jail pending trial for forming a “criminal organisation”. The were denied access to Media. The jailed Golden Dawn's president managed to make a speech by using a “pay as you go” mobile phone from his cell in Korydallos prison. As Greek electoral law stipulates that it had to be broadcast, it was. But late at night when nobody was up to hear it.
The end result was that Golden Dawn is now the third party in the Greek Parliament, with 6.3% of the vote and 17 MPs. Obviously the approach was not successful.
But New Democracy is not alone in failure. So did the European Commission in Brussels. By trying to join the scaremongering bandwagon of their EPP cousin in Greece, they further alienated Greek voters. Their only excuse is that they were probably misinformed both by people they are surrounded with as well by the Representation of the European Commission in Greece, toeing the line of the former government in Greece, thus reproducing its mistakes.
http://www.neurope.eu/article/losers-athens-and-brussels