The 'Greek Crisis' and the Austerity Controversy in Europe

Studies in Political Economy, 2008

Dissent, pp. 33-37, fall, 2013

Respresentation, 2015

This article represents an attempt to investigate the Greek elections of January 2015 within the political context of Greece. The outcome of this election illustrated the main features of the exact previous election of 2012 including the fragmentation of the party system and the rise of anti-bailout forces. In this context for the first time since 1974 and for the first time since the entry of Greece in the rescue bailout mechanism of the European Union and the International Monetary Fund in 2010, an anti-bailout party, the radical left SYRIZA, won the elections forming a coalition government with the right-wing ANEL on an anti-bailout platform.

2020

The July 2019 parliamentary election was the first national election since Greece officially exited the eight-year bailout programmes in August 2018. It was preceded by three ballots on European Parliament, regional and munici- pal elections in May 2019, which served as a decompression valve for the electorate to punish the incumbent government and indicate a clear will for governmental change, since the conservative party ND won by a landslide. Whereas ND’s victory in the parliamentary election was anticipated, it was its scale that would define the shape of the new government. Increasing its score by 11.76 points since September 2015, ND won 39.85% of the vote, securing a comfortable majority of 158 out of 300 seats. This is the first majority government in Greece since 2011, marking the return of the country to a new normality. Even if SYRIZA failed to deliver the anti-bailout pro- gramme which had initially brought the party to the centre of electoral com- petition, it still gathered 31.53% of the vote, losing just 3.93 points since its last victory in 2015, hence securing its place as one of the two key actors in the new two-partyism. Party fragmentation was limited to six parliamentary parties instead of eight, with the neo-Nazi party, Golden Dawn, having lost its parliamentary representation.

The citizens of Hellas voted on the 17 th of June for the second time. The first round of national elections on the 6 th of May revealed a fragmented party scene and a reluctance to form a coalition government. One might think that the Greek politicians behaved irrationally then by risking to leave the country headless in the middle of the crisis. However, quite the opposite is true. The party leaders weighed primarily their short-term gains and losses from consenting to a coalition government. Neither PASOK (until recently a major force) nor DIMAR (a breakaway fraction of SYRIZA) wanted to form a government with the conservative Nea Dimokratia (ND) without the participation of the main winner of the elections, SYRIZA. Both of them argued that a parliamentary majority would not guarantee much and a government without SYRIZA would be short-lived. Their estimation was not wrong, and it applies as much then as it does now. What they forgot to say publicly, though, is that if PASOK and DIMAR agreed to a government intending to continue the austerity programme while SYRIZA continued to play Mr. Niceguy, their parties would probably vanish in the next elections whereas SYRIZA would triumph.

Electoral Studies, 1985

Evans, M. (ed). Coalition Government as a Reflection of a Nation’s Politics and Society (Routledge), 2019

2016

The victory of the radical-left SYRIZA in the September 2015 election confounded expectations given the failure of the SYRIZA–ANEL government formed in January either to deliver on its central promise of reversing austerity policies or to capitalise on its major victory in the July referendum. The article examines both the election and the referendum that preceded it, offering an explanation for SYRIZA’s victory. It also attempts to trace the trajectory of the current party system in Greece and its ongoing realignment process in light of the 2015 electoral contests and the busy political timeline since the formation of the first SYRIZA–ANEL government.

Politiikasta.fi, 2012