Two and half years after Greeks voted
into power a coalition government led by Antonis Samaras, the head of
the center-right New Democracy party, they returned to the polls this
weekend.
The elections, which were forced because the Greek parliament was
unable to select a new president, have propelled Greece back into the
world’s headlines. The Coalition of Radical Left, known by its Greek
acronym Syriza, won a decisive victory, polling at 36.3 percent of the
vote compared to 27.8 percent for New Democracy, 6.3 percent for the
neo-Nazi party Golden Dawn, and six percent for To Potami, a centrist
party. Those results hand Syriza 149 seats out of 300, and it will form a
coalition government with the far-right, anti-austerity party of
Independent Greeks (which won 4.7 percent of the vote). Syriza’s 40-year
old leader, Alexis Tsipras, who ran a successful anti-austerity
campaign, will be the next prime minister of Greece.,
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