Galery

2

1

Anastasia Balezdrova

Two hours after the end of the vote and long before the announcement of the election results, GRReporter sought the opinion of one of the major Greek journalists and analysts Fanis Papathanasiou about the vote of the Greeks and the main objective: the options to form a cabinet. On 6 May, when the previous elections were held, he stated again in an interview with our agency that New Democracy and PASOK will try to unite pro-European political forces.

Mr. Papathanasiou, how would you comment on the election outcome?

We must still wait to see the final results. If the victory of Antonis Samaras is really confirmed we will have to see how easy or difficult it will be to form a cabinet with the possible involvement of PASOK and New Democracy. It appears that this will not be easy.

From then on, and if formed, it is interesting to see how a cabinet like this will start, given that SYRIZA, which won such a high percentage of votes, will not participate in it.

The other thing, which we register, is a very strong vote of the front against the memorandum involving SYRIZA, the Independent Greeks and Golden Dawn. Not only did it keep its percentage, but even increased it and this is one of the surprises.

It is unclear whether such a government will be able to implement the things whose execution Antonis Samaras and Evangelos Venizelos guaranteed, given the reaction of the powers which remained outside of it. It is also unclear whether Antonis Samaras will be able to negotiate the terms of the memorandum as he promised before the election. Will he manage to take advantage of the current atmosphere in Europe and will he be able to bring about substantial changes?

Everything now is very relative and things will continue this way over the coming days. Generally I do not think that forming a cabinet will be an easy task.

What does today's vote determine?

The dilemma "euro or drachma" was more obvious, but at the same time it was more complex. And this was true because some of the Greeks wondered whether we should consider the possibility of leaving the eurozone and scraping the bottom of the barrel. On the other hand, under the international pressure and fear of tomorrow, they were troubled. Everyone knows that the drachma would lead the country to a very difficult situation, particularly in the beginning after its introduction. This was precisely the thought of every Greek standing in front of the ballot box: Should we put the bottom of the barrel after all?! From the polls and from the election results it became clear that this frightened many people. Otherwise SYRIZA would have received a higher percentage of votes.

How long do you expect this future cabinet, whatever it is, will survive?

Nobody can predict. First, it depends on which parties will participate in it. Evangelos Venizelos had said that he would not participate in a coalition government without SYRIZA and New Democracy. We still do not know if he will stick to this position. Also we do not know whether the Democratic Left Party will also participate. Everything is too relative. I think the coming week will also be filled with major changes. I do not think that the forming of the cabinet will encounter many obstacles.

Strong international pressure in this direction is expected.

Yes, this is true. But we must take into account what might be the future of this cabinet in these conditions and also the strong support of the citizens for the parties that are against the memorandum.

Do you think that it is possible that third elections may be held?

No, I don’t think that we will arrive at such a decision, at least not soon. I think that a government of national unity will be created, which will lead the country for a certain period: for the following months, a year, I do not know exactly.