Much of the media focused on the neo-Nazi New Dawn Party, which won 9.4 percent of the vote -- a 2.4 percent jump over their 2012 showing. New Dawn will send three representatives to the European Parliament, where the Greek left will swamp their representatives.
Another rightwing Greek party, the Popular Orthodox Rally lost voters.
While Syriza focused on the Greek domestic crisis, it also consciously attached itself to other left anti-austerity movements throughout the continent. "What happened in Greece is not a success story but a social tragedy that shouldn't be repeated anywhere in Europe," Syriza's leader Alexis Tsipras said during a debate among candidates for the post of European Commission president.
That "anywhere in Europe" resonated in other countries entrapped in the Troika austerity formula or struggling to emerge from stagnant economies and long-tern unemployment. Beside Greece, the most conspicuous example was Podemos in Spain.
Podemos came out of the massive anti-austerity rallies that paralyzed Madrid and other Spanish cities in 2011, and which impelled similar demonstrations in Europe and the U.S., including the Occupy Wall Street movement. Podemos, says its leader Pablo Iglesias, is "citizens doing politics. If the citizens don't get involved in politics others will. And that opens the door to their robbing you of democracy, your rights, and your wallet."
The Spanish party consciously modeled itself on Syriza, not only in program, but also in its grassroots, bottoms-up organizing tactics. While Podemos has only been in existence four months, it took 8 percent of the vote nationwide and 11 percent in Madrid. Added to the success of left parties in Catalonia, Valencia, and the Basque Region, plus the votes for the Spanish Green Party and the Socialist Party, Spain's ruling rightwing Popular Party is suddenly a decidedly minority organization.
That pattern was repeated in several other countries.
In Ireland the two parties that oversaw the austerity program -- Fine Gael and Labour -- dropped 16.5% and 12.5% respectively from the 2011 general election, while left and independent parties, like Sinn Fein, the Socialist Party and People Before Profits cornered 45% percent of the vote. The anti-austerity Portuguese Socialist Party defeated the center-right coalition that has overseen the Troika's recipe for Lisbon, and the Portuguese Communist Party took 12.7 percent of the vote.
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