Post-election relief in Athens: ‘This is the new face of democracy in Europe’

http://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/jan/26/election-relief-athens-greece-democracy-europe

Version 0 of 1.

In the first three years of Greece’s agony, the wide expanse of Syntagma Square in front of the old Royal Palace – home of the present-day parliament – was a scene of savage clashes between riot police and incensed anti-austerity protesters.

On Monday, the day after elections won in spectacular fashion by a party pledged to burying austerity for good by writing off chunks of the country’s debt and ripping up the draconian terms of its eurozone bailout deal, the mood was one of long-awaited relief.

“This is a necessary change for Greece,” declared Panos Grigoriou, a mild-mannered law professor on his way back to work after lunch. “There is still some uncertainty for the future, but just look around you – you can almost feel the hope coming back.”

While he saw “sizeable differences” between the radical leftists of Syriza and the party with which they have formed a government, the centre-right Independent Greeks, Grigoriou – who like all university department heads in Greece has seen his budget slashed by 70% since 2009 – felt that when it came to talking to the EU, Syriza’s hand might even be strengthened by the alliance. “It will show them the breadth of feeling there is in Greece,” he said.

Maria Papadopoulos, who opened a small shop selling agricultural supplies when her husband was made redundant after 24 years in a big Greek distribution company, said she was “just immensely relieved. And much more optimistic.”

The coalition partnership may not be ideal, she said, but “we were just so tired, so terribly tired, after all these years. Our life has so little quality. Almost none, really. This winter, I could not afford heating in my home. So if it is for the better, I can accept it. I trust Tsipras.”

Another academic on his way back to the university, Joseph ben Bassat, said it was a shame that Syriza’s leader, Alexis Tsipras – who at 40 will be Greece’s youngest prime minister of recent times – had had to seek a coalition partner at all.

“But it’s really not a big issue – the balance of power will be so one-sided,” he said. (Syriza won 149 seats in Greece’s 300-seat parliament, and Independent Greeks 13.) “They may get some minor ministry. But all the major portfolios, all the big decisions, will be in Syriza’s hands. I’m not worried.”

Bassat said Syriza represented “a new generation – the unemployed generation – and a new start for Greece, and I hope for Europe. The social revolution started last night, and it will spread: Spain, Portugal, Italy. The rich countries are right to be worried. This is the new face of democracy in Europe.”

Leonidis Koudydis had not voted for Syriza. “I voted conservative; they were starting to get somewhere,” he said. But even he was happy: “Syriza is a good thing. I had had enough, too, of the fear. We are a mature country, we’ll give Alexis a chance, and we want to believe he’ll pull it off. He’s smart enough to manage even an awkward coalition.”

Up on the rarefied and leafy heights of Kolonaki, home to some of central Athens’ most expensive shops and their exceedingly well-heeled clientele, it was hard to find anyone really upset by Syriza’s victory – or worried by Tsipras’s warning that the vote was “a defeat for the oligarchs and elites”.

“What is there to be worried about, really?” asked Thanassis Katsoulis, a former factory owner who sold most of his stake a few years ago and now divides his time between the even plusher Athens suburb of Kifissia and his holiday place on Poros.

“Tsipras won’t take Greece out of the euro, because the majority of Greeks don’t want that. And he won’t go after the oligarchs either, because there aren’t the mechanisms for that in Greece and I don’t think there ever will be. It will take more than one man and a few of his friends to change the Greek mentality. So I think things will be OK. Political change was necessary, but nothing much will happen.”

Vassiliki Karamerou, a shop assistant in a fashion boutique, was struck by “how relaxed everyone is here today. Before the elections, a lot of people round here were terrified, you know? But today I’m hearing a lot of good things. They feel happy, finally, to try something really different.”

Father and daughter Nikos and Angelika Zerva, architect and student of architecture (and neither Syriza voters), admitted to some uncertainty as to what Tsipras’s intentions might be.

“If he does come after the rich, it will not be good news for us,” said Angelika. “The rich, the people at the very top, are untouchable in Greece. It will be the middle classes like us who will get hit, and we have suffered like everyone else.”

Only Mariana Iannou, who owns a small company selling leather accessories, said she was disappointed with the outcome. “It’s worse than bad, it’s crazy,” she said “Why? Because people voted for Tsipras, but they can’t really expect him to do what he says he will because he can’t.”

Syriza voters “probably expect Tsipras to get them more money”, she said. “But the only place he can get that is from Europe, which he’s not going to do – or at least he says he won’t. Plus, if he does try to take more money away from the rich then everyone will be the same – and then who will invest in this country? No one, that’s who. The man is a fraud and his voters are deluded. That’s my opinion. It’s hopeless.”