Election fever? Not in Greece

Greeks may have invented democracy, but at the moment, few here are very happy with the modern version.

According to early exit polls, Greece’s main opposition party, the Panhellenic Socialist Movement or PASOK, won an outright majority in Sunday's parliamentary elections. But although voters issued a strong rebuke to the center-right New Democracy party, which has been in power for the last 5 1/2 years, there’s deep cynicism about whether the new government will be any more successful than the old one in tackling country’s growing problems.

When Greeks went to the polls, they were faced with a slate of familiar — and most say uninspiring — choices. With the exception of a few hard-core PASOK supporters who gathered this evening in a central Athens square to cheer the early results, even many who cast their votes for the socialists say they did so with reservations. Many were simply casting a protest vote against New Democracy, which has been battered by a series of corruption scandals and its poor handling of crises like last year's riots and this summer's fires.

This is the third time that the current leaders of Greece’s two main parties, the socialist PASOK and the center-right New Democracy, have faced off. Costas Karamanlis, the country’s outgoing prime minister, won the last two of those battles. 

Both Karamanlis and George Papandreou, the socialist leader, are scions of powerful political families that have dominated Greek politics for much of the past 70 years. Karamanlis is the nephew of a prime minister. Papandreou is the son and grandson of Greek prime ministers.

Papendreou, who was born in the United States, does not have wide popular support. Pre-election polls showed that even when PASOK was leading by a large margin, more voters had faith in Karamanlis as prime minister. 

And difficult times lie ahead. Greece is under enormous pressure from other euro zone countries to rein in government spending, which would require tackling tough and deeply entrenched problems such as the state’s bloated civil service. Reforms are desperately needed in the areas such as the education sector, tax system and environmental policy. And key Greek industries like shipping and tourism have been hit hard by the global economic downturn.

During the election, Papandreou made expensive promises. Now he's going to have to find money to make good on them — or explain to voters why he made promises he couldn't keep.

http://www.globalpost.com/notebook/europe/091004/election-fever-not-greece