Greek conservatives win big in local elections
Greece’s main opposition conservative party, New Democracy, repeated last week’s success in European Parliament elections by dominating in second-round runoff local elections on Sunday. The political group secured 12 of the country’s 13 regions and won a majority of cities.
In Athens, Kostas Bakoyannis, son of former conservative mayor Dora Bakoyannis and nephew of opposition leader Kyriakos Mitsotakis, won with a 65% share of the vote to defeat a candidate backed by the ruling left-wing Syriza.
Prime Minister Alex Tsipras’ party picked up less than a quarter of the vote last week, a result that led him to call for snap elections on July 7, three months earlier than scheduled, and crushed his dream of becoming the first Greek prime minister in three decades to see out a full term in office.
New Democracy won five of Greece’s 13 regional district governorships in last week’s first round of local voting — which ran alongside the European Parliament ballot — while the left took just one.
Read more: Greece’s Yanis Varoufakis eyes EU job — sort of
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The Greek debt crisis: A brief history
Greek crisis takes form
On the heels of a global financial crisis, Greece’s then-prime minister, George Papandreou, revealed in 2009 that the budget deficit was over 12 percent, double what it was previously thought. It was later revised to 15 percent, far exceeding the eurozone’s 3-percent limit. The revelation prompted credit rating agencies to downgrade Greece’s status, making it hard for Athens to get financial help.
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The Greek debt crisis: A brief history
Austerity sparks unrest
In a bid to help Athens out, the EU and IMF agreed to bailout Greece in 2010. The program required austerity measures to cut the budget deficit, a move that didn’t sit well with many Greeks. In response, anti-austerity protesters organized nationwide strikes and demonstrations to protest the measures and, at times, clashed with police. Mass protests took off in 2011 and continued for years.
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The Greek debt crisis: A brief history
Rise of the fringe
Resentful of growing unemployment and poverty, a majority of Greeks in 2012 voted for fringe parties that opposed the bailout and the austerity measures that came with it. The first election resulted in no clear winner and set the stage for another vote. After the second election, the center-right New Democracy was tasked with forming a new government. The party was committed to the bailout.
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The Greek debt crisis: A brief history
Crash course
In 2015, Greeks handed the left-wing Syriza party an anti-austerity mandate in snap elections, putting Athens on a crash course with Brussels. In June, Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras controversially announced a referendum on EU bailout terms. On June 30, Greece became the first developed economy in the world to default on an IMF bailout. Athens imposed capital controls to stop capital flight.
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The Greek debt crisis: A brief history
Turning point
The bailout referendum resulted in a rejection of EU terms, with 61 percent voting against a new rescue program. But that didn’t stop Tsipris’ government from agreeing to new terms with Brussels after Greece’s then-Finance Minister Yanis Varoufakis stepped down. It allowed Greece to avert an exit from the eurozone and paved the way for a new bailout program amounting to €86 million ($98 million).
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The Greek debt crisis: A brief history
Road to recovery
As part of the 2015 bailout program, Greece adopted economic reforms, including cutting public spending and privatizing state assets. Two years later, the IMF urged Brussels to ease its bailout program terms and provide extensive debt relief, describing Greece’s debt as unsustainable. In order to help Greece meets its bailout terms, Tsipras agreed to extend tax and pension reforms.
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The Greek debt crisis: A brief history
End of an era?
In August 2018, Greece officially exited its bailout program, with EU officials calling it the “beginning of a new chapter.” EU Commissioner Pierre Moscovici said Greeks “may not feel that their situation has yet improved much,” but the EU would continue “to work with you and for you.” However, with high unemployment and rampant poverty, some observers have cast doubt on the bailout’s success.
Leftist firebrand
“We are calling on citizens to choose progressive mayoral and district candidates today … against the representatives of conservatism,” Tsipras said after casting his ballot in central Athens on Sunday.
“The former communist youth leader surged to power as a radical rabble-rouser, championing ‘collision politics’ against the Greek establishment and European austerity,” reported DW’s Athens correspondent Anthee Carasava.
Read more: Greece’s Tsipras to cut taxes and hike pensions
“Four years on, he has turned into a master of the mainstream, mutating and maturing into a lord of realism. So much, that many European leaders, including Angela Merkel who once threatened to oust him from the eurozone, now praise him as a trusted and credible ally. They’ve even nominated him for a Nobel Prize for helping to turn Greece into a pillar of stability.”
jsi/kw/amp (AP, AFP, Reuters)
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