Local elections in Greece on Sunday did not produce any clear winners, leaving behind a fluid political landscape ahead of the crucial May 25 polls for the European Parliament (EP), analysts and media said in Athens on Monday.
Official results from the Greek interior ministry showed that with 95 percent of all votes counted, the final outcome of municipal and regional elections will be decided during next Sunday's runoff in parallel with the EP elections.
Only a third of the 325 municipalities and one of the 13 regions across Greece have produced definitive winners. The main opposition radical left Syriza party seems to have won the first battle of impressions. Its candidate for governor of Attica region, Rena Dourou, leads the race by a slim margin of 23.8 percent of votes versus 22 percent garnered by the incumbent Yannis Sgouros who has the backing of the co-ruling socialists.
Furthermore, Syriza candidate for mayor of Athens municipality Gavriil Sakellaridis is neck-and-neck with incumbent Yorgos Kaminis with 20.2 percent and 21 percent of votes respectively.
The two elections in the greater Athens area traditionally hold a heavy symbolic weight in Greek elections. They indicate voting patterns on a nationwide scale, since almost half the country's population lives in the capital and its suburbs.
On the other hand, the ruling conservative New Democracy party did impressively better in the rest of Greece, holding a strong position in 11 out of the 13 elections.
Both sides have expressed satisfaction with the results so far with Prime Minister Antonis Samaras and Syriza head Alexis Tsipras praising the 9.8 million registered voters for next Sunday's EP elections.
Does one vote for stability or anti-bailout change? It is the dilemma Greek voters have faced in all electoral battles since the start of the debt crisis in 2009. The 2012 general elections produced a fragmented parliament and a political landscape divided between pro and anti-bailout forces.
Latest official data show that Greece is slowly exiting the crisis, but the pain continues for millions of people suffering from chronic high unemployment and recession.
Based on Sunday's results, voters appear divided. A clear shift towards one of the two paths -- stability with painful reform or a change in economic policies -- could save or undermine the future of the current coalition and increase pressure for snap general elections in the coming months. On the other hand, it could decrease Syriza's chances of a change in leadership in the near future, according to analysts such as Costas Stoupas.
"The messages of yesterday's elections are not promising neither for the two-partite government coalition nor for Syriza. Both sides' future hangs on a thread... it is a fluid political landscape," he wrote in financial news website Capital.
"The fluid political landscape in the final stretch towards the European [Parliament] elections," leading Greek newspaper Kathimerini (Daily) said in a front-page story on Monday.
The Vima (Tribune) daily in an editorial said: "The electoral message was clear: maintain stability and bring change where it doesn't alter the overall picture. The outcome of the vote in the first round isn't really a cause for celebration for any side."
The article also highlighted increased support for the far-right in the ballot. "There is of course one blemish: the increase of the neo-Nazi Golden Dawn party's presence, especially in Athens. This is a phenomenon that must cause great concern, particularly within the political system," the editorial added.
Golden Dawn spokesman Elias Kassidiaris ranked fourth with 16.3 percent of votes in the race for the post of Athens mayor.
In the 2012 general elections, the ultra-right party garnered 7 percent of the vote and entered Greek parliament for the first time, riding on the wave of public discontent for harsh austerity measures implemented to tackle the debt crisis.
Since last autumn, after the murder of an anti-fascist activist by a Golden Dawn supporter, almost the entire parliamentary group of the party face charges for running a criminal gang. However, Sunday's results showed the party's popularity has not waned.
Under the Greek constitution, candidates in elections for municipal and regional councils run as independents. But they are traditionally backed by political parties that count the results as being among their wins or losses.
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