GREECE-ELECTIONS/EXIT POLLS REAX Jubilation at Syriza camp after exit poll shows the party on course to win

Record ID: 335664

  • Title: GREECE-ELECTIONS/EXIT POLLS REAX Jubilation at Syriza camp after exit poll shows the party on course to win
  • Date: 25th January 2015
  • Summary: ATHENS, GREECE (JANUARY 25, 2015) (REUTERS) SUPPORTERS AT SYRIZA PARTY CAMPAIGN CAMP MORE SUPPORTERS, MAN HOLDING GERMAN DIE LINKE PLACARD READING: "We start from Greece. We change Europe." VARIOUS OF CROWDS OUTSIDE SYRIZA CAMPAIGN TENT WAVING FLAGS (SOUNDBITE) (Greek) SYRIZA SUPPORTER, ARGIRIS PANAGOPOULOS, SAYING: "After four years of great suppression, after four years
  • Embargoed: 9th February 2015 12:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: Greece
  • Country: Greece
  • Topics: General
  • Reuters ID: LVAA5TAWJYQ8NSWUVTT7UJ8O5FYZ
  • Story Text: Syriza supporters cheered after a joint exit poll on Sunday (January 25) put Greece's anti-austerity leftist party on course to win a snap general election by a large margin over Prime Minister Antonis Samaras' conservatives.
    For Syriza supporters, gathered at the party's campaign tent in central Athens, the election victory marks what they hope is an end to the nightmare of the last four years of economic crisis, cuts and austerity that have seen Greek incomes plummet.
    "After four years of great suppression, after four years of catastrophic policy that was implemented in Greece, we are truly happy because we believe we will turn the page and the tragedy that we lived in southern Europe, not only in Greece - because this tragedy is also in other European countries - will start to come to an end," said Argiris Panagopoulos.
    "We won! We won! We won!" cheered one ecstatic woman as an updated exit poll suggested that Syriza is on the cusp of an outright victory, commanding a 10 point lead over Samaras's New Democracy.
    The anti-bailout party was on track to take 36 and 38 percent of the national vote, well ahead of Samaras' centre-right New Democracy party which was seen taking 26 to 28 percent, according to the updated poll by Metron Analysis, GPO, Alco, MRB, Marc.
    "I feel very happy because we must end this situation. It is a message from Greece to Europe: this is the end of a German [dominant] Europe, this is the end of austerity, and we hope for a better Greece and a better Europe," said Syriza Supporter, Sandra Demertzi.
    But other Syriza supporters confessed to having mixed emotions about whether Syriza and its young leader Alexis Tsipras can deliver the changes Greeks desperately want.
    "Happy, but also stressed about the day after, whether along with the people we can implement our goals, our programme, our ideas to protect ourselves - but also the people - from all this causes (sic) of the last governments, and to bring new hope from Greece to the whole of Europe, and, I don't know, globally," said Olga Balaoura, an architect.
    "I feel, I hope, I hope, I feel optimistic I would say. I'm not happy, I can't say I'm happy, I'd like to be happy, but really, I'm hoping," said teacher, Katerina Voulelika.
    A few streets away from the jubilant Syriza camp, a handful of Antonis Samaras' New Democracy supporters stared despondently at television screens airing the projected results.
    "They crippled our lives, they cut pensions, they cut wages. What did we expect? Let's not analyse it any further, it is what it is," conceded New Democracy supporter, Vangelis.
    But Thedoris Machalas denied the party was finished and said the defeated conservatives would fight on in opposition: "New Democracy still has power, and from the main opposition position we are certain it [New Democracy] will fight for not only the good of New Democracy but also for Greece."
    The prospect of a Syriza victory has worried financial markets who fear the party's plan to demand a debt writeoff and end austerity measures will trigger a new financial crisis and put Greece on the path to a euro exit.
    Led by the 40-year-old Alexis Tsipras, Syriza wants to renegotiate a chunk of Greek debt and end austerity measures. That has spooked markets which fear a new financial crisis in Greece could push it out of the euro, though any broader repercussions for the bloc are expected to be limited.
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