Greek election - January 25th 2015

[MaxQue]

Now begins the inevitable clash between the Teutonic troika and people's democracy. My solidarity is with the latter.

Why should there be a clash? Greece should be congratulated with, finally, achieving a political decision to leave the euro and the details should be peaceably worked out. Drachma will be reintroduced and rapidly devalued. EU, hopefully, would provide emergency humanitarian support for a few years and then Greece will resume its growth and development from where it had been in the early 1990s. 

Well, the clash is that Greece thinks that by the vote today they can achieve a debt write-down without affecting everything else (being in Euro, access to capital markets etc etc) while those who hold that debt does not see it that way.  We will see who blinks first.  I implore the troika to hold firm and not allow this. 

But it's not in the interests of Germany. If Greece can leave, other countries can leave and they want to keep France and Netherlands and etc as vassal states.

[jaichind]

Anyone have any idea why Teleia did so well ?  It seems this one man party came out of nowhere and got 1.8% of the vote. 

[ag]

Now begins the inevitable clash between the Teutonic troika and people's democracy. My solidarity is with the latter.

Why should there be a clash? Greece should be congratulated with, finally, achieving a political decision to leave the euro and the details should be peaceably worked out. Drachma will be reintroduced and rapidly devalued. EU, hopefully, would provide emergency humanitarian support for a few years and then Greece will resume its growth and development from where it had been in the early 1990s. 

Well, the clash is that Greece thinks that by the vote today they can achieve a debt write-down without affecting everything else (being in Euro, access to capital markets etc etc) while those who hold that debt does not see it that way.  We will see who blinks first.  I implore the troika to hold firm and not allow this. 

But it's not in the interests of Germany. If Greece can leave, other countries can leave and they want to keep France and Netherlands and etc as vassal states.

Do you seriously think France and Netherlands would WANT to leave?

Greece has to leave, because it, pretty much, has no options. It should not have been allowed in, in the first place - and staying in is extraordinarily painfull. It would, in fact, be better off outside. I have hard time seeing the Dutch and French governments wanting to emulate their example for no good reason, though )

[MaxQue]

Now begins the inevitable clash between the Teutonic troika and people's democracy. My solidarity is with the latter.

Why should there be a clash? Greece should be congratulated with, finally, achieving a political decision to leave the euro and the details should be peaceably worked out. Drachma will be reintroduced and rapidly devalued. EU, hopefully, would provide emergency humanitarian support for a few years and then Greece will resume its growth and development from where it had been in the early 1990s. 

Well, the clash is that Greece thinks that by the vote today they can achieve a debt write-down without affecting everything else (being in Euro, access to capital markets etc etc) while those who hold that debt does not see it that way.  We will see who blinks first.  I implore the troika to hold firm and not allow this. 

But it's not in the interests of Germany. If Greece can leave, other countries can leave and they want to keep France and Netherlands and etc as vassal states.

Do you seriously think France and Netherlands would WANT to leave?

Greece has to leave, because it, pretty much, has no options. It should not have been allowed in, in the first place - and staying in is extraordinarily painfull. It would, in fact, be better off outside. I have hard time seeing the Dutch and French governments wanting to emulate their example for no good reason, though )

France isn't going well at all and Euro/Europe/Germany/Merkel is a very popular scapegoat.

[NewYorkExpress]

Wow... Golden Dawn not only survived the crackdown against them, they only lost one seat. I don't know whether to be impressed, scared or surprised.

Let us not overlook the satisfaction that the fascist party actually lost 50,000 votes in a situation of economical crisis and paranoia against the almighty banks-Troika-Merkel et al. I think we can nearly all agree on this one particular satisfaction tonight.

Being the third (or tied for the third) largest party in parliament is still nothing to sneeze at, though. Makes me wonder, if control the government came down to a coalition with Golden Dawn, would anyone do it?

[MaxQue]

Wow... Golden Dawn not only survived the crackdown against them, they only lost one seat. I don't know whether to be impressed, scared or surprised.

Let us not overlook the satisfaction that the fascist party actually lost 50,000 votes in a situation of economical crisis and paranoia against the almighty banks-Troika-Merkel et al. I think we can nearly all agree on this one particular satisfaction tonight.

Being the third (or tied for the third) largest party in parliament is still nothing to sneeze at, though. Makes me wonder, if control the government came down to a coalition with Golden Dawn, would anyone do it?

I doubt it, unless the party doing it wants to suffer a PASOK-like fate. And in the current situation, they are not useful at all.

[Beet]

Wow... Golden Dawn not only survived the crackdown against them, they only lost one seat. I don't know whether to be impressed, scared or surprised.

Let us not overlook the satisfaction that the fascist party actually lost 50,000 votes in a situation of economical crisis and paranoia against the almighty banks-Troika-Merkel et al. I think we can nearly all agree on this one particular satisfaction tonight.

Being the third (or tied for the third) largest party in parliament is still nothing to sneeze at, though. Makes me wonder, if control the government came down to a coalition with Golden Dawn, would anyone do it?

At this point, it's a surprise when the far-right party doesn't do unexpectedly well.

[politicus]

Wow... Golden Dawn not only survived the crackdown against them, they only lost one seat. I don't know whether to be impressed, scared or surprised.

Let us not overlook the satisfaction that the fascist party actually lost 50,000 votes in a situation of economical crisis and paranoia against the almighty banks-Troika-Merkel et al. I think we can nearly all agree on this one particular satisfaction tonight.

Being the third (or tied for the third) largest party in parliament is still nothing to sneeze at, though. Makes me wonder, if control the government came down to a coalition with Golden Dawn, would anyone do it?

At this point, it's a surprise when the far-right party doesn't do unexpectedly well.

There is a difference between a far right party and a far-far right party exposed as a criminal organization and competing with multiple other anti-immigration/tough on crime options. So XAs result was unexpectedly good. The ones predicting such a good result were (ironically) people ignorant of Greek politics.

EDIT: Talking about off-forum (media mainly), no offence to anyone here.

[justfollowingtheelections]

Anyone have any idea why Teleia did so well ?  It seems this one man party came out of nowhere and got 1.8% of the vote. 

They're led by a popular actor who also happens to be a successful mayor.

[Bacon King]

Looking at the election results for the first time (I've been at work all afternoon and evening), the biggest surprise I see is the Union of Centrists randomly breaking 1% for the first time in two decades

[I spent the winter writing songs about getting better]

What was Golden Dawn's best area?

[politicus]

Syriza's 2014 40 point governmental program:

http://links.org.au/node/2888

Interesting to see how much (or little) of it they will try to implement.

[Bleeding heart conservative, HTMLdon]

[politicus]

What was Golden Dawn's best area?

Lakonias 10.47% (Sparta)

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Laconia

[ag]

Now begins the inevitable clash between the Teutonic troika and people's democracy. My solidarity is with the latter.

Why should there be a clash? Greece should be congratulated with, finally, achieving a political decision to leave the euro and the details should be peaceably worked out. Drachma will be reintroduced and rapidly devalued. EU, hopefully, would provide emergency humanitarian support for a few years and then Greece will resume its growth and development from where it had been in the early 1990s. 

Well, the clash is that Greece thinks that by the vote today they can achieve a debt write-down without affecting everything else (being in Euro, access to capital markets etc etc) while those who hold that debt does not see it that way.  We will see who blinks first.  I implore the troika to hold firm and not allow this. 

But it's not in the interests of Germany. If Greece can leave, other countries can leave and they want to keep France and Netherlands and etc as vassal states.

Do you seriously think France and Netherlands would WANT to leave?

Greece has to leave, because it, pretty much, has no options. It should not have been allowed in, in the first place - and staying in is extraordinarily painfull. It would, in fact, be better off outside. I have hard time seeing the Dutch and French governments wanting to emulate their example for no good reason, though )

France isn't going well at all and Euro/Europe/Germany/Merkel is a very popular scapegoat.

So, a French government would be willing to commit suicide in order to blame Merkel/Germans for it?

Getting out of the euro isn't going to be pretty - not for the Greeks, not for the French. It is just that for the Greeks, staying might be worse.

[Vosem]

What was Golden Dawn's best area?

Depends what you mean by "best". By popular vote, it was Lakonias, where they got 10.5% of the vote -- the only district where they broke double-digits. But they were only in fourth place in Lakonias (behind the two main parties and PASOK) and failed to win any seats there.

They are now the third-largest party across much of Attica and northern Greece; their strongest performance in a district where they came in third place (also the strongest performance anywhere they won seats) was Kilkis, where they won 8.6%, third place, and a single seat. Kilkis is right on the border with Macedonia and has a very strong far-right-wing place; it was among the best results for LAOS as well.

In terms of seats, their best result was V' Athinon, where they won 3; they won no more than a single seat in any other district. But this is mainly a function of population; they were in fifth place with 5.7% of the vote (below their national average) in V' Athinon. But, in terms of seats, I think every party's best result was V' Athinon, since it's the most-populous district. It's kind of like saying Mitt Romney's best state was California, since he won more actual votes there than anywhere else, even if he was actually quite weak there.

So the answer, depending on how you look at it, is either Lakonias or Kilkis.

EDIT: Oddly enough, Lakonias was also PASOK's best result. It was one of just eleven districts where they came third, and the only place where they broke double digits (11.0%). A very weird place. Another notable fact -- Syriza and To Potami have the best "best" district -- in both cases, Rodopis.

EDIT 2: By popular vote, ND and DIMAR have the same best district -- Chiou. However, DIMAR only placed 12th in Chiou, and there were multiple districts where they had a better performance -- that is, 11th.

There seems to be a clear gap between Teleia and Laos, with Teleia breaking the threshold in multiple districts but Laos in none at all. Teleia and better-ranking minor parties are legitimate contenders, while Laos and everything below Laos (including Dimar and Snow's beloved Antarsya) are just minor parties no one took seriously -- even though some, like Laos and Dimar, have legitimate recent histories as serious parties.

[Bacon King]

to add to Vosem's excellent post above, here's some more fun and interesting results that I've found on the local level. The locations are in the format of "Municipal Unit, Municipality, Election District"

Kalentziou, Erymanthou, Achaias: Official Papandreou Pals 4 Life Fan Club
53.65% Kinima
23.74% Syriza
  5.02% PASOK
  4.57% ND
  3.65% ANEL

Smynous, Anatolikis Manis, Lakonias: apparently stuck in 2012
29.47% ND
27.72% Syriza
20.43% PASOK
  6.52% KKE
  6.23% XA

Anatolikis Manis, Anatolikis Manis, Lakonias: literally Hitler
46.66% ND
19.20% XA
18.35% Syriza
  5.10% KKE
  3.77% PASOK

Eydilou, Ikarias, Samou: "Yes Comrade, our elections are very competitive"
39.08% Syriza
36.37% KKE
10.11% ND
  3.67% ANEL
  2.16% PASOK

Arrianon, Arrianon, Rodopis: ND almost fell below threshold
65.93% Syriza
26.66% To Potami
  3.48% ND
  6.72% Kinima
  0.51% PASOK

[MaxQue]

Kalentzi is the place from where the Papandreou familly comes from.

[Bacon King]

It's official: ANEL is entering a coalition with SYRIZA

Edit- reports are that Tsipras will also be speaking with Potami and KKE as well

[politicus]

It's official: ANEL is entering a coalition with SYRIZA

Edit- reports are that Tsipras will also be speaking with Potami and KKE as well

"An agreement in principle"

http://www.thetoc.gr/eng/politics/article/independent-greeks-and-syriza-to-form-government

Not 100% sure what to make of this, but I think it will be a trainwreck.

Much clearer here:

“from this moment on there is a government in the country. The Independent Greeks give a vote of confidence. The Prime Minister will go the President of the Republic and announce the government formation”

"Mr. Tsipras is also scheduled to meet with the leader of The River Stavros Theodorakis on Monday afternoon, in order to discuss the possibility of the newly-formed party to support the coalition government efforts. Mr. Tsipras is also rumored to ask to meet with the Communist Party’s general secretary Dimitris Koutsoumpas, who announced that his party would support any pro-people measures that SYRIZA proposes."

http://www.tovima.gr/en/article/?aid=670803

[Philip Weisler]

Yep, just read about it on Greekreporter: http://greece.greekreporter.com/2015/01/26/greece-greek-coalition-new-government-alexis-tsipras/. Funny how some of our ''unquestionable experts'' were just some days ago categorically arguing that SYRIZA will never ever form a coalition with ''teh bad rightist'' ANEL. Just look at some pages backwards  ;-)

Even if they eventually fail to form a coalition the fact that they started consultations immediately after the election says something.

It's official: ANEL is entering a coalition with SYRIZA

Edit- reports are that Tsipras will also be speaking with Potami and KKE as well

[Bacon King]

It's looking likely that ANEL won't directly enter government themselves- but their support allows Tsipras to prove to the President his government will have the confidence of Parliament.

[politicus]

It's looking likely that ANEL won't directly enter government themselves- but their support allows Tsipras to prove to the President his government will have the confidence of Parliament.

I really hope so. Tovima speculates about ANEL taking over shipping matters etc. as if it would be an actual coalition government.

[Bacon King]

Greek stock exchange didn't like waking up to a SYRIZA victory, but they like that the new government found a majority before lunch:

http://mobile.bloomberg.com/quote/ASE:IND

Edit- never mind, looks like the market's in free fall again! Will be interesting to watch this alongside all the breaking news today

[politicus]

The international media use phrases as "looks to have formed a government"..