Three spins on the Greek elections: which is closer to truth?

[Hannah Bell]

FYI: PASOK = Socialists. PASOK is implementing the Greek austerity budget.


1. From TIME

Greek Voters Give Austerity Plan a Second Chance

Greek Prime Minister George Papandreou read triumph in the results of the regional elections Sunday, Nov. 7, that put his center-left PASOK Party's candidates ahead in several regional races, including the powerful position of Attica governor. "The Greek people have reaffirmed they want change," Papandreou said on state-run NET TV on election night.

His ebullience was a far cry from last week, when the quiet but stubborn Premier threatened to dissolve Parliament and call for new elections if PASOK fared badly. The vote of confidence was tepid at best, since only about 60% of 10 million eligible voters cast ballots, a relatively low turnout for Greece. But it kept the country on its planned austerity course, at least for now. To keep his support from crumbling in the coming months, Papandreou must show both worried Greeks and skeptical international markets that the bitter reforms will save the country from bankruptcy and move it toward a more solvent future...

In what has become a common sign of disaffection throughout Europe, Greeks elected their first-ever far-right extremist. By the end of Monday, Nikolaos Michaloliakos, leader of the neofascist Chrysi Avgi (Golden Dawn) political organization, looked set to win a seat on the local council in Athens. The party appears to have fed off public anger against illegal immigrants in central Athens, a sentiment that has been rising partly because of the troubled economy. "Chrysi Avgi is still marginal, but it is not a welcome development," says Ifantis. "When things in a society are not going well, there is room for demagogues."

Despite all the anger and cynicism, Greeks still gave a pass to Papandreou and his government, because "most people believe there's no credible alternative now," Ifantis says. "The government has at least one year to speed up its reform program and convince people it's going somewhere."


Read more: http://www.time.com/time/world/article/0,8599,2030131,00.html#ixzz14y0ZQvM7




2. From Britain's Socialist Worker

Radical left scores a victory in Greek elections

Regional elections in Greece last weekend showed the anger at the Pasok government’s austerity programme.

The election saw a big drop in votes for Pasok—down to two million from three million at last year’s general election. The right wing New Democracy party and the fascist Laos party also saw their votes drop.

And, in a country where voting is officially compulsory, 40 percent of voters abstained.

The left was the success story. The Communist Party’s vote rose by more than 10 percent. The three different factions of the left Syriza coalition picked up a similar amount of votes to last year, despite damaging splits.

The Antarsya anti-capitalist coalition made a major step forward. It quadrupled its vote to 100,000, winning 2 percent of the national vote and 20 councillors across the country.

Prime minister George Papandreou said he would call a general election if Pasok lost. The party did well enough for him to say that he did not need to do that.

http://www.socialistworker.co.uk/art.php?id=22976



3. some southeastern european website

Voter abstention plagues first round of Greek elections

The first round of local and regional elections in Greece on Sunday (November 7th) ended on an anti-climactic note with no clear winners, but with all political sides expressing "satisfaction" over results.

More importantly, the prospect of a snap general election was unceremoniously ruled out by Prime Minister George Papandreou as quickly as it was threatened in late October.

One surprise Sunday was voter abstention, which reached a record high of 39%. If blank and void ballots (9.10%) are added to the previous figure then nearly one in two Greek voters turned their backs on the local government election, an unprecedented figure in Greece. Just as worrying was the rate of abstention in the largest municipalities, with the figure in the municipality of Athens reaching an unprecedented 54.5%.

Ruling PASOK party-backed candidates picked up two regions -- PASOK stronghold Crete and the Southern Aegean -- in the first round, leaving the remaining 11 regions to be decided in the second round, which will be held November 14th. The country's largest municipalities -- Athens, Thessaloniki and the port city of Piraeus -- are the big "political prizes" up for grabs, along with the all-important Attica region, which encompasses the 3,000,000-voter area of greater Athens.

Nevertheless, a day after the first round votes were tallied, the Athens-based research firm Public Issue pinpointed PASOK's electoral performance at 34.67%, significantly down from the 43.92% mark the party posted when it won the October 2009 general elections.

The main opposition New Democracy (ND) party's electoral strength was pegged at 32.6%, while the big winner of the night was the Communist Party (KKE), whose election strength was estimated to swell to 10.8% -- based on nationwide calculations -- on the back of its virulent anti-EU and anti-austerity platform

http://www.setimes.com/cocoon/setimes/xhtml/en_GB/features/setimes/features/2010/11/10/feature-02


here's what the greek papers are talking about:

ADESMEFTOS TYPOS: "More austerity measures to come".

AVGHI: "Third round of measures with lay-offs and cutbacks".

AVRIANI: "4.5 billion euros black hole in deficit brings new snap elections scenarios".

ELEFTHEROS: "Ministers and PASOK cadres pull the carpet from under Papandreou's feet".

ELEFTHEROTYPIA: "Troika threatens salaries in private sector".

ESTIA: "Tragic decisions for the economy".

ETHNOS: "Prime Minister George Papandreou's rage over his ministers' and cadres' wrong handlings".

ELEFTHEROS TYPOS: "The defeat in elections brings in-party clashes, and the day after the elections additional measures".

IMERISSIA: "Deficit off target".

KATHIMERINI: "The measures divide the government".

LOGOS: "In the vise of the troika and rating firms".

NAFTEMPORIKI: "National Bank of Greece and Eurobank offer 8.7 billion euros liquidity to market".

TA NEA: "Government 'sees' unholy alliances between ND and Communist Party in the second round of local government elections".

RIZOSPASTIS: "Government is lying that it will not harm salary and pension earners".

TO VIMA: "Nagging in ruling PASOK and main opposition New Democracy over the local government elections result".

VRADYNI: "Troika wants more blood".

http://www.ana.gr/anaweb/user/showplain?maindoc=9292104&maindocimg=8020194&service=94



Tell you one thing, TIME = propaganda.

Nearly half of Greeks either didn't vote or turned in empty ballots. In a country where voting is mandatory. The non-voting is a record. TIME completely ignored that fact, misleadingly calling the non-vote "a relatively low turnout for Greece." And focusing on a single candidate who was ahead as representative of a turn to neo-fascism and anti-immigrant sentiment, when the far right parties lost strength. who is, incidentally, not the first "far-right extremist" ever to hold office in greece. where does TIME get its writers? greece had a outright fascist government during the war & a far-right dictatorship after the war.

[xchrom]

1. you're right about Time doing a propaganda piece -- but i'm stunned

at the percentages of abstentions.

[Hannah Bell]

2. that is a protest vote (or non-vote) if i ever saw one. not only the non-voters in a country where

voting is mandatory, but the percent of empty ballots. nearly half of greece did one or the other.

that's the big story.

[xchrom]

3. I agree -- it's a protest. A sizable one at that. Nt

[Hannah Bell]

7. k

[Greyhound]

4. There will be change, that is certain.

I don't think there are many that will enjoy it, though. Maybe this time the change will be justice for the guilty.
:kick: & R

[Hannah Bell]

5. here's the actual vote count & another take:

1) PASOK (Centrism/Social Democracy): 35%.

2) New Democracy (Liberal conservatism): 34%.

5) LA.O.S – Populist Orthodox Rally (National Conservatism/Far Right/Nationalism) 4%,

3) Communist Party (Marxism-Leninism): 10.5%,
4) Coalition of left (Trotskism/Democratic Socialism): 4%,
6) Greens (Green politics): 3%,
7) Antarsia (Trotskism/Far Left): 1.7%,
8) Democratic left (Democratic Socialism): 1.5%


BBC (just like Reuters) has reported the precedency of PASOK in most of the regions, emphasizing some results in Attica, and also presented many statements of the PM. It does not also avoid to mention the large turnout as the result of people’s reaction both towards the austerity program and the Greek political system. “The decision not to call a general election will please the International Monetary Fund and financial markets, which had become nervous at the prospect of political instability in Greece” claims BBC.

The New York Times reported that Papandreou from the first day that he was elected as a PM, is trying to satisfy both the international markets and the Greek citizens and that yesterday celebrated his victory. The French Le Monde describes the results as a referendum on the strict fiscal policy of the government of PASOK while, the German press finds that the outcome of yesterday’s municipal and regional elections was a bad sign for Papandreou who despite his significant loss in support achieved to maintain his first position.

Let’s remain to the above quote for a litte while. First of all, Nikolaos Michaloliakos is not a right wing extremist. He is not the leader of just a far-right party. Golden Dawn (not to be confused with the magical Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn) is a neo-nazi (national-socialism) party. There are some differences between far right (fascism) and nazism. We can the LA.O.S party far-right, but Golden Dawn has a different approach regarding the “Aryan blood” and the “glorious Hellenic race”. They have many times used the nazi salutation (click here) and some members openly declare that they adore Adolf Hitler, his life and his work. Its tactics remind similar extreme nazi organizations across Europe, such like the German NPD or are compared with the action of some Russian boneheads.

In many areas heavily populated by non-nationals Michaloliakos gathered about 20% of the total votes. He had previously organized a vast anti-immigrant campaign by spreading his hate propaganda in many public schools and by recruiting young pupils who are not so much involved in politics and thus could very easily adopt his rhetoric. The absence of social housing in Greece together with some tough bureaucratic immigration policies resulted in many migrants ending up without help, roaming in the streets without being able to get even the basic health care, not even the necessary documents to travel to another European destination as most of them want. Of course this has increased tensions between Greeks and immigrants, the latter being blamed for impoverishing the district of Agios Panteleimonas. (Read this article for more). Golden Dawn did not get any attention outside Athens (5,5%) except in Thessaloniki with 1.00%, Western Greece with 1.87% and Peloponesus with 1.44%.

Nevertheless, the most notable characteristic of these elections is undoubtedly the significant rise of the left, something that most of the international media knowingly hide. If we take look at the results, the Communist party got around 10.5% (576.746 votes), in contrast with 2009 which got 7.54% (425.963). One of its best performances, given the 40% of turnout. I must admit that as an anarchist, I do not support its hard-core Marxist line, however, its significant rise shows only one thing: That most of the Greek people are angry towards capitalism and the stance of the European Union. (The Greek CP is strictly Euro-sceptic just like most of the radical left).

In Kaisariani the Communist Party received about 25.5%, in the region of Attica about 14.4%, in Thessalia 13.3% and finally in Ikaria with 45.2%, has elected a mayor.

Generally the left gained more support in most of the working class areas while right wing or liberal parties (LA.O.S, New Democracy and independent candidates that mostly lean to the right) have increased their power in the rich neighbourhoods.

We also have the significant rise of Antarsya, a very small radical left party which achieved to win more than 2% in some regions of Athens. The Coalition of the Left lost about 2%, a percentage of voters who moved for the newly established “Democratic Left” party.

On the contrary, the far right LA.O.S fell from 6% to 4%.

The most reactionary reports indeed come from the USA, presenting that socialism is responsible for the Greek crisis. This is nothing more but one of the most dangerous and misleading propaganda. Let’s put things in order: PASOK claims to be a socialist party but it has long ago (perhaps 30 years ago) replaced its social-democratic manifesto with a tough neo-liberal agenda that makes it no different to the liberal conservative New Democracy. The Greek crisis has not been caused because of “socialism” as Greece was never a socialist country. On the contrary, most of the Greek people are outraged with the government which instead of trying to find other ways to cover the debt, has axed all the social benefits and social welfare programs. So as we can see the reactions are not against socialism but against all the policies that force us to accept a more right-wing political attitude.

Not a single news network reported the left wing success or even the fact that a great percentage of those who did not vote are people from the left side (or anarchists who traditionally don’t vote). It is not difficult to understand the reasons of the attitude of the major news networks: The neo-liberal European leaders who are promoting their capitalist agenda, do not want to show anything about the Greek resistance abroad fearing that similar uprisings will brake out elsewhere. Therefore, they overshadow the truth and of course yesterday’s clear message that the Greek people, just like the French and the Spanish, they do not want their country to become a mini USA, they do not want to end up a xenophobic consuming mass (despite the sad surprise of the Golden Dawn rise). Greeks have a long history of fights for social solidarity, coming through dictatorships and right wing brutality that was openly supported by the USA. We, the Greek people fought enough to be able to enjoy some social benefits and better living conditions and we will not allow anybody to take them away from us. Similarly we will not tolerate this right wing misleading propaganda coming from people who have intention to distort our history and smash our resistance.

http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:PQ5B5oMYhUwJ:freevoicenetwork.org/articles/the-greek-municipal-elections-of-2010-and-the-media-parody/+nikolaos+michaloliakos&cd=16&hl=en&ct=clnk&gl=us

[Hannah Bell]

6. k