Greek Elections: a social democratic landslide

Yesterday’s election results in Greece have transformed the country’s political map. Whilst a victory for the social democrats of PASOK was expected, the end result is a landslide win that was not predicted by polls and was not expected by most analysts. The social democrats received 160 out of a total 300 seats. Beating its centre-rival by 10 percentage points, PASOK shows that social democrats can still win big. Smaller parties have retained their overall share of the vote, with the left parties lightly down and the far right slightly up compared to the last poll in 2007. At 70%, turnout was very low indeed – a worrying sign indeed.

The new Prime Minister George Papandreou has received a popular mandate to implement a demand-driven economic policy to get the economy moving again. PASOK’s promise to defend the vulnerable and implement redistribution-oriented policies has convinced the public to give Mr. Papandreou a fighting chance to implement his programme. This, despite the fact that PASOK’s long record in office had been tarnished by widespread accusations of corruption and clientelistic practices. Popular discontent with the governing Nea Dimokratia has also contributed to PASOK’s triumphant victory.

Enormous challenges lie ahead of the new government, and the window of legitimacy may soon close again unless visible changes are felt by the population in a short space of time. For now, however, PASOK’s victory shows that social democratic values remain as timely as ever – it is up to social democrats to support them successfully in the polls.

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