Greece's
leftist Syriza party has claimed its second national election victory in less than
a year. The independent nationalist ANEL party has announced they will be
junior coalition partners in the new government.
Deutsche Welle, 21 Sep 2015
Official
results late on Sunday showed that Greek left-wing leader Alexis Tsipras and his
Syriza party were headed for a relatively comfortable victory in the country's
general election, with around 35.54 percent of the vote after half the ballots
had been counted.
"We
have fought against much stronger powers and Syriza has proved that it is too
tough to die, because it has deep connections with the people," Tsipras
said in his victory speech.
Standing
alongside Tsipras was Panos Kammenos, leader of the Independent Greeks party
(ANEL), set to be the junior coalition partner as Syriza did not clear the 38
percent hurdle necessary for an automatic parliamentary majority. Syriza was
projected to win 145 seats and ANEL to win 10 in the 300-seat parliament,
slightly down from the 163 seats Syriza's broader coalition managed to secure
at the last polls in January.
Projections
showed that the conservative New Democracy part had managed to garner only 28
percent of the vote, causing leader Evangelos Meimarakis to concede defeat less
than two hours after polls had closed. Far-right extremists Golden Dawn
received 7 percent, a figure that's likely to boost their presence in
parliament by two seats.
Turnout was
estimated to be at around 55.8 percent of eligible voters, the lowest rate
since 1950. This was a steep drop from January's polls, when 64 percent of
those registered cast a ballot.
DW's Milan
Gagnon was in Athens on Sunday and met up with voters who summarized the
fatigue some Greeks have with the constant political turmoil, and the inability
of any one party to provide concrete solutions to the debt crisis.
Nefertiti says she might have voted in the #GreekElections if she'd been in her hometown, but she's not sure for whom pic.twitter.com/Njr5XijbhM
— Milan Gagnon (@milangagnon) 20 september 2015
Sunday's
election, the third national vote in 2015 after January's general election and
July's bailout referendum, were prompted by Tsipras' resignation as prime
minister in August. Tsipras hoped the snap polls would help shore up support
for Syriza going into the implementation of new financial reforms demanded by
Greece's creditors for the country's third bailout since 2012.
Tsipras
originally campaigned in January against further austerity and rescue funds,
but eventually capitulated in July after facing bank closures and an economic
downward spiral.
Dutch
Finance Minister Jeroen Dijsselbloem, head of the Eurogroup, Greece's largest
creditor, congratulated Tsipras on his victory on Sunday, saying he was
"ready to work closely with the Greek authorities and to continue
accompanying Greece in its ambitious reform efforts."
es/cmk (AFP, Reuters, dpa)
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