Greece’s Socialists have won yesterday’s election with enough seats to form a government and oust conservatives who angered voters for failing to tackle graft and the economy, an official projection said.
Greece’s conservative Prime Minister Costas Karamanlis conceded election defeat and resigned as head of his party yesterday after results showed the opposition Socialists winning a comfortable governing majority.
“I want to congratulate (socialist leader) George Papandreou for his victory. As every Greek, I hope he succeeds in the great challenge to deal with difficult circumstances,” he told reporters. “I assume responsibility for the defeat and start procedures for the election of a new party president.”
If the final result matches the projections, Pasok will win an absolute majority in Parliament at a time when the Mediterranean country, seen as the eurozone’s weakest link, needs a strong government to deal with an economy on the verge of recession.
With about 45 per cent of the national vote counted, the Socialists were ahead with nearly 44 per cent against the New Democracy’s 35 per cent.
The Interior Ministry projected, based on partial results, that Pasok had won nearly 44 per cent of the vote, giving it 160 out of 300 seats in Parliament, and New Democracy was trailing with about 34 per cent and 92 seats.
“It is a great victory, a historic victory that means we have a great responsibility to meet the expectations of the Greek people,” senior Pasok party member Evangelos Venizelos told reporters.
Thousands of jubilant Pasok supporters waited for party leader George Papandreou to appear at headquarters in central Athens, waving green flags and honking car horns.
Mr Papandreou had promised a three billion euro stimulus package on a platform of taxing the rich and helping the poor, while the outgoing Prime Minister Costas Karamanlis called for two years of austerity.
Markets were likely to be pleased with the result.
“Not because they have a preference between the two parties but because a new government with a parliamentary majority will have a fresh mandate to pursue its programme over a four-year term,” said Alexander Moraitakis, president of the Greek brokers association SMEHA.
It was the third face-off for Mr Papandreou, 57, a US-born soft-spoken politician, and Mr Karamanlis, 53, a powerful speaker who appeals to the average Greek, both the heirs to two of Greece’s most powerful political dynasties.
Opinion polls had showed most Greeks appeared ready to end five years of conservative rule that started amid high hopes of ending endemic corruption but soon sunk amid its own scandals.
Weakened by the scandals and a fragile parliamentary majority, Mr Karamanlis called the snap poll, gambling he had a better chance of winning now than later in his four-year term.
Mr Papandreou will face a budget deficit topping six per cent of GDP, rising unemployment and deep unhappiness with the education system, social security and immigration.
“The main challenge for the new government is to submit a credible budget and a realistic timetable for reducing fiscal imbalances,” said Nikos Magginas, an economist at National Bank.