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European Electoral Postmortems

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Expect Main Street France to chafe under Hollande like Sarkozy. At issue is how long they'll need to find out and whether they'll react more strongly.

Greek Voters Reject Austerity

On Sunday, public anger rousted PASOK and New Democracy, Greece's two dominant parties. Together, only 35% of voters supported them. Since 2009, social democratic PASOK dropped from 43.9% to 15.5%. Conservative New Democracy fell from 33.5% to 20%.

Both parties fell one vote short of enough for majority coalition governing authority. An anti-democratic provision got them that close. New Democracy won the highest voter total. As a result, it automatically got an additional 50 seats not won.

Public anger rejected Greek politics. A record 40% of voters abstained. Crushing wage, benefit, and social cuts, as well as unemployment created mass impoverishment, homelessness, and human suffering. 

Ordinary people have three choices - leave, starve or rebel. So far, anger's been restricted to street protests, throwing the bums out, or abstaining. 

Parties rhetorically opposing austerity scored best. The Coalition of the Radical Left (SYRIZA) tripled its vote from 4.6 to 16.8%. In 2010, Greece's Democratic Left split from SYRIZA. It got 5%. The Communist Party of Greece (KKE) received 8.5%. Greek Greens and Democratic Alliance each won 3%. Right-wing parties scored poorly overall.

SYRIZA promised increased social and infrastructure spending. Follow-through's another issue. Eurozone rules prevent real change. So don't ruling elites and business friendly labor bosses. 

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