Greeks vote in cliffhanger euro election
June 17, 2012 18:08
Greeks fed up with austerity voted today in elections that could decide their future in the eurozone amid unprecedented external pressure not to vote for a radical leftist party. Some 9.8 million Greeks began voting in a showdown between the conservative New Democracy party and the anti-austerity Syriza party that has spooked European leaders and the markets.
The man at the centre of the storm, Syriza leader Alexis Tsipras, said his side would win and Greece would keep its place as an "equal" member in a "changing" Europe. "We have conquered fear," Tsipras told a room packed with reporters from around the globe, an apparent reference to criticism that his threat to scrap a multi-billion EU-IMF loan agreement endangers Greece's eurozone membership.
"Today we open a path to hope, to a better future," the 37-year-old former student leader said after casting his vote in the working-class Athens district of Kypseli. "We will win," Tsipras said. Greek newspapers said the vote was the most critical since the end of military rule in 1974, as conservative chief Antonis Samaras argued that a "new era" would begin for the recession-hit eurozone state on Monday.
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