Pages

Monday, May 26, 2014

Foreign Media Comment on Greek Election Outcome

Foreign media outlets report on the outcome of Greece’s double elections, commenting on the first place secured by the country’s main opposition Coalition of the Radical Left (SYRIZA) party and the increased approval ratings of the neo-Nazi Golden Dawn party, while abandoning statements about any political instability and its imminent threats as reproduced by domestic media. “Greece’s SYRIZA Wins EU Elections in Warning to Samaras,” Bloomberg mentions in its headlines, while also referring to Golden Dawn, “whose leader and five other lawmakers are in prison pending trial on charges of running a criminal organization,” managing, however, to get three seats in the European Parliament. “In a historic day for the left, the anti-austerity SYRIZA won the ballot by a margin of nearly four points over the conservative New Democracy party led by Prime Minister Antonis Samaras,” the U.K. newspaper The Guardian said, and also reported on Golden Dawn’s increased approval ratings. The U.S. Wall Street Journal comments that “Greece’s SYRIZA Party Leads in European Elections,” and adds, “Public anger at the two governing parties, who took turns ruling Greece for much of the past 40 years, have helped fuel the rise of SYRIZA, as well as the extremist Golden Dawn party.” “In Greece, the radical left anti-austerity SYRIZA movement of Alexis Tsipras won the vote but failed to deliver a knockout blow to Prime Minister Antonis Samaras‘ government,” Reuters mentions in a piece on the rise of eurosceptic and radical right parties to the European Parliament. “The radical left party, which has been fiercely critical of the austerity policies pursued since 2010, claimed an important victory in Greece’s local and regional elections by winning the Attica region, where almost 30 percent of all Greek voters are registered,” U.S. news agency Associated Press said on SYRIZA’s victory, while also referring to the 9.4 percent approval secured by Golden Dawn, and the 9 percent increase since the 2009 EU elections. “Radical Winners – This is how Greece is ungovernable” German newspaper Die Welt entitles its article on Greece’s radical left and right, SYRIZA and Golden Dawn, parties gaining major advantages in the EU elections, underlining, “Had they been national elections, SYRIZA would have gotten according to Greek electoral law a winning bonus of 50 MPs,” which is allocated so as to stabilize the government and protect it from radical forces. German Bonn-based General Anzeiger said,“The European Election Day is marked by at least two national disasters: the huge electoral success of the radical left in Greece and the deployment of the extreme right in France.” The international news outlets don’t neglect to refer to all political changes that have taken place across the European Union, and the increase in extreme right movements, like Nigel Farage’s Ukip in the U.K., France’s National Front of Marine Le Pen, and Greece’s Golden Dawn.

READ THE ORIGINAL POST AT greece.greekreporter.com