Sunday morning in Kifissia, one of the leafy northern suburbs of Athens, and the view from my bedroom balcony is blue sky with dark clouds looming – a fitting scene for this very important Greek Election Day.
A product of the oil industry in Aberdeen, I am one of many Scottish expats supporting the oil and gas industry around the world (and lets not mention oil prices!). I have been working in Greece for a little over a year and after commuting between the Athens of the North and the real Athens for a year, I have been resident (and paying tax!) in Greece since November.
Greece has been going through a tough time in the last five years, unemployment is high and wages are low. Though there are few signs of austerity in the posh northern suburbs, my Greek colleagues (I am a lawyer) have lost faith in their politicians and their economy. Much though they love their country, pessimism is rife.
The election came about early due to the inability of the Greek Parliament to elect a President between Christmas and New Year. The Greeks I know feared what an election would bring without appearing to have much faith in the status quo.
The election campaign has been low key. All the parties have little wooden huts in the Main Street in Kifissia from where they seek to engage with those passing by. Maybe this would suit electioneering in the UK with our unreliable weather?
As I’m not Greek, I understandably have no vote but I have tried to follow things the best I can (without speaking Greek). The main choice is between SYRIZA (an alliance of hard left Greek political parties) and the centre right New Democracy party – the party for the current Prime Minister. The smaller parties include Pasok (the old, now largely discredited, socialist party), Golden Dawn (the ugly neofascist party) and the KKE (the Stalinist side of communism – the rest being in SYRIZA).
Of the smaller parties, the most interesting to us liberals is the newly formed party To Potami (The Bridge). Though the two MEPs they elected last year sit within the socialist group in the European Parliament (although explicitly not as part of the Party of European Socialists), they are a centrist liberal force, avowedly pro-European, wanting to ease the austerity without ruining the economy, advocating the rule of law and challenging the clientelism that bedevils Greece. These are messages that will attract any British Liberal Democrat and are very similar to the stall we will set out in May. ALDE have endorsed To Potami.
SYRIZA has run the most high profile campaign with the slogan “Hope is Coming”. The Greek people need hope at the moment and I can understand the attraction of SYRIZA – although their wishful thinking, everything for everyone, politics reminds me of the Yes Campaign during the Scottish Referendum last year. SYRIZA will win and whether they get 151 seats in the 300 seat Parliament remains to be seen. Much depends on the vagaries of the electoral system (and like any good Lib Dem I can bore you about that on request).
I’m writing this on Sunday afternoon as the Greeks continue to vote. Whatever the result, we all are nervous about the future. Like my expat colleagues, I am making sure I have as little as possible in my Greek bank account. Grexit is very much in the air – well, at least the fear of it. What will happen? Watch this space!
Photo credit: Stephen Harte
* Stephen lives in Edinburgh, works in the oil industry in Aberdeen and has been a party member since he was 17.