ATHENS (MNI) The conservative New Democracy party won a narrow
victory in closely-watched Greek parliamentary elections on Sunday,
according to official estimated results released by the Interior
Ministry.
New Democracy won 29.53% of the vote, giving it 128 seats in
parliament. That compares with 27.1% of the vote and 72 seats in
parliament for the radical left Syriza. The socialist Pasok party won
12.3% of the vote and 33 seats.
Since none of the parties won an outright majority, Greek President
Karolos Papoulias will now call on the leader of the first party, New
Democracy’s Antonis Samaras, to form a government.
Since 151 seats in the 300-seat Greek parliament are required to
form a government, New Democracy and Pasok, which both support the
austerity program imposed by the second Greek bailout, appear capable of
forming a coalition with 161 seats between them, according to the
estimated results.
But it remains unclear if Pasok would join a government that does
not include Syriza, or whether Syriza would join any government
coalition that continued to support the austerity polices required by
Greece’s second bailout agreement.
The overall results showed that seven Greek political parties
received enough votes to send representatives to the new parliament.
The right-wing Independent Greeks won 20 seats, the Ultra
Nationalists won 18, Democratic Left won 17 and the Communist Party won
12.
–Paris newsroom; 33142715540, jduffy@marketnews.com [TOPICS:
[TOPICS: M$$CR$,M$X$$$,M$Y$$$,MT$$$$,MGX$$$]
