Pro-bailout parties edge ahead
June 17, 2012
With 97 percent of the vote counted, official results showed New Democracy winning 29.7 percent and the radical leftist Syriza party 26.9 percent. The pro-bailout Social PASOK party has 12.3 percent.
"I voted for the bailout because these are the terms that will keep us in Europe," said 66-year-old English teacher Koula Louizopoulou after voting in Athens, hinting that she had chosen New Democracy.
A pro-bailout coalition
New Democracy and PASOK, the country's two traditional parties, will have enough seats to form a coalition. A coalition needs to have at least 151 of the 300 seats to form a majority government. Both parties have said they wish to work with other European countries to stay in the 17-nation eurozone.
Syriza, led by a 37-year-old former communist, had vowed to tear up the punishing terms of the bailout agreement in order to repeal strict austerity measures.
Greece's lenders have said the new government must accept the conditions of a 130 billion euro ($164 billion) bailout agreement or funds will be cut off, driving Athens into bankruptcy.
With such stark choices, Sunday's election had proven divisive within Greece, where austerity measures in line with the terms of the bailout were greeted with protests.
Experts worldwide were watching the vote Sunday as well, knowing that a win for the anti-bailout Syriza could have led to Greece's exit from the eurozone as well as the feared and unknown ripple effects such a move would have on the global economy.
With the results going the other way, Greece's future in the eurozone appears secure.
tm/jlw (dpa, AP, Reuters)