GREECE: Opposition makes strong showing in Athens in local elections - exit polls

Record ID: 335623

  • Title: GREECE: Opposition makes strong showing in Athens in local elections - exit polls
  • Date: 18th May 2014
  • Summary: ATHENS, GREECE (MAY 18, 2014) (REUTERS) CAMPAIGN KIOSK OF THE SYRIZA PARTY IN CENTRAL ATHENS SYRIZA PARTY SUPPORTERS WATCHING EXIT POLLS VARIOUS OF SUPPORTERS CHEERING AND CLAPPING AT RESULTS OF EXIT POLLS SUPPORTERS WATCHING TV (SOUNDBITE) (Greek) SYRIZA SUPPORTER, ELENI, SAYING: "The situation is very difficult and at some point the people's voice had to be heard. And n
  • Embargoed: 2nd June 2014 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: Greece
  • Country: Greece
  • Topics: General
  • Reuters ID: LVACGMZ9PBPJNNIH0MG1RRG5UXHM
  • Story Text: Exit polls showed Greece's main opposition, the radical leftist Syriza Party, ahead in the key city of Athens and the Attica prefecture on Sunday (May 18) in municipal elections, a surprisingly strong performance that represents a setback for the country's ruling coalition government.
    "The situation is very difficult and at some point the people's voice had to be heard. And now it is being heard, and loudly, particularly here in the capital of the country," said Eleni, a Syriza Party supporter after seeing the exit polls.
    The vote, along with European Parliamentary elections next week, are being closely watched as a gauge of sentiment towards the two-year coalition government of Prime Minister Antonis Samaras.
    After six years of recession and repeated waves of austerity measures that pushed unemployment over 26 percent, the election is being fought as much on national issues like an unpopular EU/IMF bailout as on local issues.
    Syriza's candidate for Athens mayor, Gabriel Sakellaridis, was leading or tied with the incumbent independent George Kaminis, exit polls showed, and ahead of the governing New Democracy Party candidate, in third place.
    Rena Dourou, Syriza candidate for prefect of the wider Attica region, was also leading.
    The Attica region - which includes Athens - counts for nearly 3 million of the 10 million voters in Greece.
    If confirmed, the vote would put pressure on Samaras's New Democracy Party and his coalition partner PASOK, who hold a wafer-thin two-seat majority in parliament.
    "The message of this vote is simple and they must hear it: Leave! Take your bailout and austerity and leave. You have impoverished society," said Dourou during her last campaign rally on Friday (May 16).
    The extreme far right Golden Dawn Party candidate for mayor, Ilias Kasidiaris, was in third or fourth place in exit polls, while the party's candidate for prefect of Attica was also in fourth place, also a strong showing for Golden Dawn.
    The far-right party's leader and five other lawmakers are in jail pending trial on charges of participating in a criminal organisation, but the group has ranked third or fourth in opinion polls, capitalising on anti-austerity and anti-immigrant rhetoric.
    "They are fooling the Greek people. Their goal is to destroy Greece, to turn it into a country full of crime and immigrants, " Kasidiaris said during a final campaign rally last Wednesday.
    The final results of the first round of municipal elections were expected late on Sunday.
    The second round will be held on May 25, the same day as the more crucial European Parliamentary elections, and analysts say the local vote may influence the EU elections.
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