Greek election: Ruling coalition New Democracy faces tough battle against opposition Syriza party
Updated
The rally for New Democracy
did not look like one being held by the leading party of the ruling coalition of Greece. It looked like a slightly desperate party, looking for guests.
Ελληνικές εκλογές: Ο κυβερνών συνασπισμός της Νέας Δημοκρατίας αντιμετωπίζει σκληρή μάχη εναντίον της αντιπολίτευσης ΣΥΡΙΖΑ
Ενημερώθηκε
Η πορεία για τη Νέα Δημοκρατία δεν φαίνεται να μοιάζει σαν ένα ηγετικό κόμμα του κυβερνώντος συνασπισμού της Ελλάδας.Έμοιαζε σαν ένα λίγο απελπισμένο κόμμα, που ψάχνει για τους πελάτες.
Apparatchiks προέτρεπαν παράξενες να πάει μέσα για να γεμίσει τις πολλές κενές θέσεις, καθώς ο χρόνος για καθυστέρησε την εμφάνιση του Έλληνα Πρωθυπουργού
Όταν Αντώνης Σαμαράς έφτασε, τον ρώτησα τι θα έλεγε στους ανθρώπους που ήθελαν να ψηφίσουν για το κόμμα της αντιπολίτευσης του ΣΥΡΙΖΑ, που αναζητούν να ρίξει την κυβέρνησή του έξω;
"Ότι είναι σε λάθος δρόμο», είπε. "Και αυτοί θα χάσουν."
Στη συνέχεια περπάτησε πάνω στη σκηνή για να χαιρετήσει τους υποστηρικτές του για τελευταία φορά πριν από τις εκλογές.
Διαβάστε ολόκληρο το κείμενο του ΑΒC στην Αγγλική.
Apparatchiks were urging stragglers to go inside to fill the many empty seats, as the time for the Greek prime minister's appearance was delayed
When Antonis Samaras arrived, I asked him what he would say to people who wanted to vote for the opposition party Syriza, looking set to throw his government out?
"That they are on the wrong path," he said. "And they will lose."
Then he walked on stage to greet his supporters for the last time before the election.
Mr Samaras and his party know it is nowhere near that easy to divert Greece from what seems to be an imminent, radical change of government.
Syriza is leading New Democracy by 4 percentage points in many pre-election polls. Some put the gap as high as 10 percentage points.
New Democracy is unpopular for carrying out years of austerity measures, leading to a deep recession, to meet the terms of the massive EU bailout.
In the past few weeks, the party has carried out an almost unrelentingly negative campaign against Syriza, saying a vote for them means a vote to leave the Eurozone, something 70 per cent of Greeks do not want.
That is despite the fact Syriza has said it would want to stay in the bloc - it just wants to throw out the EU bailout deal conditions.
Syriza's opponents say that defiance would mean Greece would default and drop out of the bloc. Syriza says Europe would blink and cancel most of Greece's debt. Sceptics say something in between is most likely.
Syriza promising to raise minimum wage, boost pensions
Dimitri Sotiropoulos, a researcher with London School of Economics and political scientist at the University of Athens, said that Syriza may ultimately disappoint Greece with its promises.
The party promised to raise the minimum wage, boost pensions, and raise the desperately poor standard of living across Greece, all made possible, in theory, by Europe writing off a large part of Greece's debt.
"[Syriza] has posed the right questions," Mr Sotiropoulos said, but "some of its answers create the fear that it won't be able to deliver its promises".
"And perhaps it in fact may cause economic distress to the Greek economy which is already very frail."
Mr Sotiropoulos said Syriza's "best weapon" was not what he called a "useless threat" to leave the Euro.
"The best weapon that Syriza has is actually a rational argument ... that austerity measures have worked only up to a point," he said.
"And over time we have seen the situation in the Greek economy, except for the fiscal situation which has improved, more or less becoming first, a situation of economic recession and secondly, a situation of lowering living standards which has become unacceptable for a European country."
In fact, Mr Sotiropoulos said Syriza's legacy could be to make Europe turn a corner with its austerity programs. A gentler austerity, perhaps.
"It will be the beginning of a long process of shifting European Union policies towards a more calibrated European-wide economic policy that will balance better the requirements of competitiveness, with the need for social cohesion," he said.
There is no doubt change is in the air.
As the beleaguered prime minister's entourage went past two police officers who saluted, one was heard to say to the other afterwards, "That's the last time I'll be saluting him".
