“The left-wing SYRIZA party is set to return to power in Greece, general election exit polls indicated on Sunday,” noted the Guardian’s correspondent in Greece, Helena Smith.
She also added that the leading party’s supporters had gathered in central Athens where they cheered when the exit poll results were finally announced on Sunday evening, after the ballots closed. “It feels good, really good,” said Dimitra Anagnostou, a psychiatrist. “To be honest, I always believed we would finish ahead; I never thought we’d lose.”
Furthermore, the Guardian also noted that even though SYRIZA is currently in the lead, the party will need to form a coalition government. If SYRIZA wins 145 seats in the new parliament, and the Independent Greeks (ANEL) get another 10 seats then they will be able to form a government with a narrow parliamentary majority, however this will not be enough to survive potential “revolutionary acts.” In any case, the Independent Greeks’ leader Panos Kammenos appears very optimistic, noted the Guardian.
“The conservative New Democracy party earlier conceded defeat,” noted BBC, while the Independent added that Alexis Tsipras now has 72 hours to find a partner or partners to form Greece’s next government.
Meanwhile, the Italian Republic added that apart from SYRIZA and Tsipras’ win, the left-wing parties in Greece managed to concentrate around 45% of the votes. “”After years of almost unprecedented crisis, the vast majority of Greeks are endorsing parties that are promising to keep the country in the euro even if that implies thorough and painful reforms,” Holger Schmieding, chief economist at Germany’s Berenberg bank said to Reuters.
“Greece’s international lenders welcomed the resounding re-election for former prime minister Alexis Tsipras on Sunday night amid fears that the Leftist premier would fail to stick by his promises to stay in the euro,” noted the Telegraph.
Finally, the Financial times added that SYRIZA’s win has cemented Tsipras’ place as a “pre-eminent figure in Europe’s far-left anti-austerity movement and is likely to galvanize sympathizers including Spain’s Podemos and Jeremy Corbyn, the hard-left leader of Britain’s Labour party.”
See all the latest news from Greece and the world at Greekreporter.com. Contact our newsroom to report an update or send your story, photos and videos. Follow GR on Google News and subscribe here to our daily email!
