The Radical Party Syriza Wins the Snap Greek Elections

Steven Petrov

The Paw Print

The exit polls of the elections that were held on January 25^th in Greece showed an expected victory by the radical leftist party called Syriza. The party led by Alexis Tsipras won 37% of the voters trust, leaving the current ruling party, “New Democracy,” second with 25%. With this high percentage, Syriza will be able to win the majority in the Parliament and rule alone, without any need to form a coalition with another party. The radical leftist party was widely expected to win the elections, but was not seen as able to generate enough voters’ support to sustain a full majority, and the need of coalition was the most likely expected outcome of the elections. The other four parties apart from “Syriza” and “New Democracy” that successfully entered the parliament are the far-right ultranationalists “Golden Dawn” with 6.4%, the centrist social democratic party “The River” (Potami) with 6.2%, the Greek Communist party with 5%, and the traditional leftist party “PASOK” with only 4.5%. The newly formed party by Andreas Papandreou was unable to generate enough voters’ support to get into the parliament.

The radical leftist leader, Alexis Tsipras, expressed his view for the future of Greece, after placing his vote, saying that Greece’s mutual future with Europe is not one of strict economical sanctions and restrictions, but a one of democracy, understanding and cooperation. On the other hand, as a response, the leader of the currently ruling party “New Democracy,” Antonis Samaras, stated that these elections are of crucial importance for the country’s future and the future of “our” children. He summarized his statement by suggesting that the country will either continue to move forward with strength, security, and trust or will go in to a risky “adventure,” indirectly describing his main opposition. Greece has been one of Europe’s biggest and most complicated problems in the last decade or so, and the European Union through the European Central Bank and the International Monetary Fund have given numerous grants and loans to the South-Eastern European country to try to stabilize its economy and further stabilize the EU as a whole. However, the results have not been promising, and while the country’s economic situation has not been improving significantly, its huge European debt keeps growing to outrageous levels. The worst part is that no one sees how exactly Greece will be able to generate enough money to pay off its debt, not only in the near future but ever. This is where Syriza came in as a party, offering a radical and in turn risky alternative to decline all of the loans and subsidies that it is currently receiving and to try to get Greece out of the current economical restrictive situation that the country is in. At first the radical left was for a complete separation of Greece from the European Union, but Alexis Tsipras’ most recent statements show his willingness to work out an alternative option with the EU for Greece’s future.