Exit polls from Greece’s crucial parliamentary election suggest the conservative New Democracy party has a slender lead over the far-left Syriza party that has promised to tear up the country’s unpopular bailout deal.
Greece’s conservative New Democracy party looked set to emerge as slender winners in the country’s make-or-break parliamentary elections, exit polls suggested on Sunday.
Early polls had put the pro-Europe party neck and neck with radical left-wingers Syriza, with neither gaining enough votes for a parliamentary majority.
But later polls gave New Democracy a 1.6% lead over Syriza, which has sworn to tear up Greece’s unpopular bailout deal if it wins.
Under Greek election rules, the party that comes first will be automatically awarded 50 bonus seats, meaning New Democracy would have 127 MPs compared to Syriza’s 72, if polls are correct.
With the Pasok party predicted to gain around 32 seats, Greece’s two mainstream pro-bailout parties would then have just enough members to form a majority in parliament.
Exit polls also suggested neo-nazi party Golden Dawn had been re-elected to parliament.
Full election results are expected around 7pm GMT on Sunday.
Referendum on austerity
Sunday’s vote has been billed as a referendum on the €130 billion bailout deal and the accompanying painful austerity measures demanded by Greece’s eurozone partners and the International Monetary Fund (IMF).
New Democracy party supports the bailout deal, but has promised to renegotiate parts of it. Radical left Syriza party, headed by firebrand Alexis Tsipras, wants to tear it up.
Polls opened at 4am GMT in an election that many saw as a last chance to save the country from bankruptcy and an ignominious exit from the single currency.
Greece’s President Carolos Papoulias is hoping Sunday’s election will help end the turmoil that has enveloped Greece since the parliamentary elections on May 6 failed to produce an outright winner.
“I hope that the vote will lead us to the formation of a stable government that will immediately address the problems troubling the Greek people,” said Papoulias after casting his vote on Sunday.
A sign of the high tension surrounding the ballot came when two grenades were found outside the offices of prominent private media group Skai TV at 10am GMT.
Police said the grenades, which were operational, were found after an anonymous telephone warning. There was no explosion.
“Democracy cannot be terrorised,” said government spokesman Dmitris Tsiodras in a warning to whoever had sent the grenades.
Brussels trembling
“We have conquered fear,” Syriza leader Tsipras said on Sunday in a reference to those who stoked up fears that a vote for his far-left party would lead to an exit from the euro.
Tsipras, who was almost unknown outside Greece before last month’s elections, wants to nationalise Greece’s banks and kickstart the crippled economy through spending.
He has also pledged to increase the minimum salary to €751 per month and raise pensions, reversing some of the steep cuts enforced as part of the bailout deal.
“The example of Spain shows that this crisis is not just in Greece but the whole of Europe and the way it has been dealt with up to now has been totally ineffective,” Tsipras said this week.
Although most Greeks are opposed to further austerity, many are sceptical a new government can modify the terms of the bailout.
“We signed something and we cannot just take it back,” 68-year-old Emmanuel Kamkoutis told AFP news agency after casting his vote.
Renegotiating the bailout
On the other side of the battlefield is the conservative New Democracy party headed by Antonis Samaras, which came first in May’s election despite polling only 18.85% of the vote.
Samaras has said he will stick to the controversial EU bailout plan, though promising to renegotiate its terms in order to appease Greece’s angry voters.
Samaras said a “new era” for the beleaguered nation would begin on Sunday.
“Today the Greek people speak. Tomorrow a new era starts for Greece,” Samaras said in his hometown of Pylos in southern Greece.
Samaras’ support for the bailout deal has won him some powerful backing outside Greece, not least from German Chancellor Angela Merkel, French President François Hollande and the IMF.
Prior to Sunday’s vote, various world leaders had stepped in to ensure Greek voters were aware of the stakes.
US President Barack Obama was one of many to pile pressure on Greece’s nine million voters, warning of the dangerous implications of exiting the euro not just for Greece but for the rest of the world.
On Saturday German chancellor Angela Merkel said it was “extremely important” for Greeks to elect representatives who would respect the terms of the bailout.
Greece has been forced to seek bailouts twice. A first one worth €110 billion was dished out in 2010 and then a second €130 billion payment was handed over in 2012.
Greece also had €107 worth of private debt written off as part of the deal.