Greece expects a whole-night thriller with counting of votes. Until the last vote is counted, it will not be certain whether SYRIZA will succeed in forming a government on its own, or if it will have to build a coalition with other parties. SYRIZA and Alexis Tsipras are the official winners of the Greek elections with almost 9 percent lead over New Democracy. According to the first official results counted by the Ministry of Interior, on about 30 percent of the votes counted, SYRIZA leads with 36.5 percent, while New Democracy is behind with 27.7 percent. Third party is Golden Dawn with 6.3 percent of the votes, and Reka is the fourth with 5.9 percent. The Communist Party won 5.6 percent of the votes, PASOK 4.8 percent and Independent Greeks won 4.7.
The evaluation of these results is that SYRIZA will have 150 seats, but it is impossible to predict whether this figure would remain or change by the end of the voting, i.e. there is a possibility that the party would fall to 149 votes or to win 151 votes and thus have an absolute majority to form a government on its own.
There is euphoria and celebratory climate in front of the offices of leftist SYRIZA and in front of its headquarters in the center of Athens. River of thousands supporters of the party, following the announcement of the first results of the election polls went down to the main offices of the party and to the election headquarters not far from Syntagma Square. As soon as the results showing a big lead of about 10 percent over New Democracy were announced, people began shouting “The time of the left has come.” Several hundreds of foreign journalists, who closely follow the developments, also gathered in front of the offices and headquarters of SYRIZA.
Alexis Tsipras arrived at the offices shortly before 9 pm in order to follow the first official results of the Ministry of Interior. He was approached by river of supporters, who expected from him to regain independence and cut the strings with which foreign creditors keep Greece under control.
Unlike in front of the headquarters of SYRIZA, there is a clear disappointment in front the main headquarters of the New Dem ocracy.
Outgoing Prime Minister, Antonis Samaras admitted defeat by saying that the election results are not pleasant for New Democracy, but also that his conscience remains clean after everything done in the past two years. Samaras said he hopes the new government would be able to keep Greece in the right way for its European perspective, adding that he hopes his prediction that Greece would face new serious problems that will jeopardize its European future with SYRIZA won’t be realized.
– The Greek people have spoken and we will respect its decision. My conscience is clear. I took over a country that was on the verge of collapse, I was asked to take hot chestnuts in my hands and I did so. We have avoided the worst, we restored confidence to Greece. We built a foundation for the development and exit from the crisis – said Samaras .
