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Incumbent victorious in Greece
Real estate news By Paul Tugwell and Tracy Wilkinson
September 17, 2007
Greece's ruling conservatives on Sunday won a fiercely contested election overshadowed by the summer's devastating wildfires, scoring a victory despite widespread public discontent that gave a boost to smaller political parties. With nearly all of the ballots counted, the New Democracy Party of Prime Minister Costas Karamanlis was ahead with about 42.2%, while the leading opposition Panhellenic Socialist Movement, or PASOK, had about 38.2%.
Karamanlis claimed victory early today, saying the nation had handed him a "clear mandate to continue with the reforms the country needs." And PASOK leader George Papandreou conceded defeat, saying his party had "fought a battle and lost it." The two factions have taken turns ruling Greece for decades. Many voters spurned the traditional leaders and voted for parties that ranged from the hard-line left to extreme right, according to the exit polls. The two major parties together took 86% of the vote in 2004.
Voters were outraged at the government's seemingly clumsy handling of the recent wildfires that killed at least 65 people and destroyed thousands of acres of prime farm and forest land. And the blame did not stop there; voters accused successive governments of neglecting the environment and turning Greece into the tinderbox that made it so vulnerable to the fires' destructive rampage. Financial scandals and a host of pocketbook issues also played an important role in Sunday's vote. Although unemployment is down and the economy is growing at a respectable pace, 20% of the country still lives below the poverty line, making Greece one of the poorest members of the European Union.
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