Greece's Golden Dawn to enter EU Parliament for first time

Exit polls give the party, which denies it subscribes to neo-Nazi ideology, around a 10 per cent of the Greek vote

The Guardian

By Fiona Govan, Athens8:29PM BST 25 May 2014

Golden Dawn, Greece’s extreme Right party, looked set to enter the European Parliament for the first time after winning between 9 and 10 per cent of the vote, exit polls showed on Sunday.

The party, which denies accusations that it is a criminal organisation following neo-Nazi ideology, was Greece’s third most popular party in the election and looked set to send three MEPs to Brussels.

“Golden Dawn is the third political power in Greece, it’s the only party that shows such a steep rise,” said Ilias Kasidiaris, the Golden Dawn spokesman who is known to have a swastika tattoo on his upper arm, at party headquarters following publication of exit polls.

Protest Parties Surge in Greece, France in Early EU Votes

By James G. Neuger  May 25, 2014 10:16 PM GMT+0300

 Bloomberg

Protest parties surged in Greece and France in European Parliament elections, in a sign of the anti-European mood across the economic divide opened up by the sovereign debt crisis.

Voters in Greece, the first crisis victim, handed first place to Syriza, the party which argues the bailouts weren’t generous enough, according to a NERIT TV exit poll that gave it as much as 30 percent support. In France, the anti-immigration National Front led with 25 percent, estimates by TNS Sofres, Ipsos and Ifop showed.

“The sovereign people have declared that they are taking their destiny back into their own hands,” Marine Le Pen, head of the National Front, told a rally in suburban Paris broadcast on France 2 television. It is time for “politics of the French, for the French, with the French.”

Greece’s Syriza Wins EU Elections in Warning to Samaras

By Marcus Bensasson and Nikos Chrysoloras  May 26, 2014 9:52 AM GMT+0300

Bloomberg

Greece’s main opposition Syriza party placed first in elections to the European Parliament without winning by a big enough margin to destabilize Prime Minister Antonis Samaras’s government, with almost all votes counted.

“In the short run there is no problem of government stability,” Dimitris Sotiropoulos, associate professor of political science at the University of Athens, said in a phone interview. “While both governing parties have lost several percentage points each, their combined popular support is above the popular support of the main opposition.”

European Elections to Test Greek Coalition

There is one country where the European parliamentary elections really do matter—Greece.

By SIMON NIXON

The Wall Street Journal

May 18, 2014 5:45 p.m. ET

There seems to be a broad consensus—among voters and in the markets—that this week's European parliamentary elections don't matter very much.

Although the Parliament has gained new powers over the years, few voters identify with it. Polls suggest many will see the election as an opportunity to cast protest votes for populist parties. Most voters suspect the outcome will make little difference to the future direction of Europe, which will in any case continue to be set by national leaders and parliaments.

No Clear Winner in First Round of Greek Local Elections

By Nikos Chrysoloras and Paul Tugwell  May 19, 2014 9:23 AM GMT+0300

Bloomberg

The first round of local and regional elections in Greece ended yesterday with no single party securing enough support to declare a decisive victory.

“Personalities won over political parties, as independent candidates are ahead in the country’s three largest cities,” said Loukas Tsoukalis, president of the Hellenic Foundation for European and Foreign Policy, an Athens-based think-tank. “The results show the fragmentation of Greece’s political landscape,” he said in a phone interview yesterday.

Greek bailout is no success story, EU candidate Tsipras says

Thu May 15, 2014 8:04pm EDT

* Greek EU Commission candidate wants end to austerity

* Tsipras appears for first time in televised debates

* Opposes sanctions against Russia over Ukraine

By Harry Papachristou

Greek conservatives regain lead in polls ahead of EU election

ATHENS Sat May 3, 2014 2:02pm EDT

(Reuters) - Greece's co-ruling conservatives have regained a narrow lead over the main, anti-bailout opposition three weeks before a European Parliament election, two polls showed.

The election, which coincides with a key local vote, is seen as a test for Prime Minister Antonis Samaras' fragile coalition in a country still reeling from the debt crisis and banking on loans from the European Union and International Monetary Fund.

Samaras' New Democracy - which leads the coalition with the Socialist PASOK party - and its rival, the leftist Syriza party, have been running neck-and-neck in polls for months, with voters often swinging in favor of one or the other party.