Greece 2012

[politicus]

What is dimiourga xana ?

Nazis

Goddamnit, another nazi party ? *__*

I am sorry. I didn't mean Nazis in the literal sense. Just that they are a horrible party

[ingemann]

Let's hope for a SYRIZA-ANEL-DIMAR coalition.  SYRIZA-DIMAR seems unlikely at this point, but either way, it be the perfect middle finger to Merkel (let's hope Hollande sides with Greece if this government is the case.)

Yes for the Greeks to hang themselves is the best way to spite Merkel.

I don't want to intervene in this debate... but I'll hang my colours to the mast with this. As much as telling Merkie to go f- herself would be fun, the results would be terrible for Greece and for Europe as a whole.

If I were Greek, I'd probably hold my nose and vote ND at this point. They're a terrible party, but I'm not one to join on Tsipras' bandwagon. That guy is a tool and/or moron.

I agree, and in fact there may be a bonus, ND may discredit itself to the same point as PASOK did, which mean both ND and PASOK get to clean up after themself, and at the same time the Greeks get rid of these two parties as the only major forces in Greek politic. 

[Formerly Californian Tony]

What is dimiourga xana ?

Nazis

Goddamnit, another nazi party ? *__*

I am sorry. I didn't mean Nazis in the literal sense. Just that they are a horrible party

Yeah, after we got to know Golden Dawn, one should be much more careful in using the word.

[ObserverIE]

What is dimiourga xana ?

Nazis

Goddamnit, another nazi party ? *__*

Merkel fanboys who want to ban public demonstrations and sound as if they'd rather like to ban the KKE.

[Formerly Californian Tony]

Merkel fanboys

LOL masochists LOL

[Bacon King]

I've taken a look at the polls so far; here's a bit of analysis:

• I don't think you can really conclude that PASOK is rising. Their differing results appears to mostly be pollsters' different methodologies being applied. All three firms that have released two polls in the last two weeks all show PASOK essentially stable. So, while no poll agrees on how well PASOK is actually polling, it appears to be statistical noise rather than anything else.
• SYRIZA is definitely up from their result in May. The different methodologies, however, muddle one from seeing whatever trend exists. The two firms that had them in the high twenties a week ago are showing big declines now, while if you exclude those results there appears to be a steady increase from 20% to around 22% for SYRIZA.
• I have no idea what's going on with ND. Marc/Alpha is showing them up 2.8% while Metron is showing them down 2%, in pretty much the same time frame. All pollsters generally agree that ND is polling somewhere around 22% though, plus or minus a couple of points; their results are definitely more stable between pollsters than most other parties (especially SYRIZA).
• ANEL and KKE are definitely losing support. This is notable because pretty much everyone overestimated KKE in the May polls.
• XA is certainly losing support, but I worry that there might be some sort of "shy Nazi" effect, where some prospective Golden Dawn voters don't want to admit who they support to a random phone caller. I wish I could read Greek to really look into this; I'd love to see if there's a disparity in Golden Dawn support between live-call and automated pollsters.
• Remember that in May pretty much every pollster significantly overestimated ND and PASOK, while seriously underestimating SYRIZA. I assume they've all corrected the way they assign undecideds now, but I have no actual evidence of that (again, I wish I could read Greek! ).

[ObserverIE]

Merkel fanboys

LOL masochists LOL

Not necessarily masochists. There are plenty of enthusiasts for swingeing austerity who believe that swingeing austerity will principally affect others and not themselves.

[Iannis]

What is dimiourga xana ?

Nazis

Goddamnit, another nazi party ? *__*

Merkel fanboys who want to ban public demonstrations and sound as if they'd rather like to ban the KKE.

I love this party, I hope they will join DRASI to form a bigger force

[Zuza]

For the first time since 6 May elections, one poll (Marc/Alpha) indicate ND lead with 23.1 % (SYRIZA 21 %). ND and PASOK combined would get 164 seats. Can they form coalition in case of such election result?

Yeah, 151 seats gets them a majority of 1.

I understand, I asked about how likely that both ND and PASOK will agree to form coalition. Before 6 May ND rejected such possibility. What now say ND and PASOK leaders?

[Landslide Lyndon]

For the first time since 6 May elections, one poll (Marc/Alpha) indicate ND lead with 23.1 % (SYRIZA 21 %). ND and PASOK combined would get 164 seats. Can they form coalition in case of such election result?

Yeah, 151 seats gets them a majority of 1.

I understand, I asked about how likely that both ND and PASOK will agree to form coalition. Before 6 May ND rejected such possibility. What now say ND and PASOK leaders?

It's a virtual certainty. Of course having just 151-52 could be problematic. But if they manage to get 160+ together, then it's a done deal.

[Vasall des Midas]

Merkel fanboys

LOL masochists LOL

Not necessarily masochists. There are plenty of enthusiasts for swingeing austerity who believe that swingeing austerity will principally affect others and not themselves.

Upper income ultra-populist class warriors.

[RodPresident]

Bakoyannis accepted Samaras' offer and she'll support him.
 

Merkel fanboys

LOL masochists LOL

Not necessarily masochists. There are plenty of enthusiasts for swingeing austerity who believe that swingeing austerity will principally affect others and not themselves.

Upper income ultra-populist class warriors.

DX refused to accept Liberal Alliance in a pro-European coalition with Drasi. Manos is very surprised, but Tzimeros don't want to lose conservative voters because Valianatos is a gay rights activist.

[Lasitten]

Reuters now announces that SYRIZA is polling 30 % and ND 26 %.
How can the situation differ so much? Elections going to be very interesting.

PASOK seems to be not rising from the 3rd place. Have Greeks lost their trust on PASOK? And are the people who usually vote for PASOK now voting SYRIZA?

Ou, I cannot post the link.

[asexual trans victimologist]

Welcome!

You can just post the URL and we can copypaste it into our address bars, I think.

[Lіef]

This is the poll, presumably: http://online.wsj.com/article/BT-CO-20120524-715300.html

Public Issue, released 5/24
SYRIZA: 30%
ND: 26%
PASOK: 15.5%
ANEL: 8%
DIMAR: 6.5%
KKE: 5%
XA: 4%
DIXA-DRASI: 3%

DATA RC, released 5/24
ND: 23.5%
SYRIZA: 23%
PASOK: 10.6%
ANEL: 5.3%
KKE: 4.6%
XA: 5.1%
DIMAR: 3.3%

[Bacon King]

Of those two polls, note that the former pollster tries to predict undecideds by determining how they lean, while the latter just reports undecideds like a US poll would. So it looks like there's like 25% undecided, most of them on the left (if you compare with the first poll).

[RodPresident]

In my opinion there are some undecideds on right too between ND and DX-Drasi coalition. Many of them see Samaras as too vacilating.

[© Tweed the Younger]

GD and KKE lost ground.  predictably

[Lasitten]

It's getting interesting because the Finnish media is full of news about Greece elections and one day they're predict that SYRIZA is going to win and other day all the media is for ND. It's like all Finns are interested for the result...

I wonder what's going to happen to DIMAR. Are supporters moving to vote SYRIZA or back to voting PASOK?

[Landslide Lyndon]

Four new polls today and they all show ND ahead by margins from 1,1 to 5,7%.

Kappa Research



ALCO



MARC



And MRB has the following results:

ND                    23,3%
SYRIZA             22,2%
PASOK              13,8%
ANEL                     7%
DIMAR                5,7%
KKE                       5%
XA                         4%

[Tender Branson]

Christine Lagarde says that it is payback time for Greece

CHRISTINE Lagarde, the head of the International Monetary Fund (IMF), said that she had more sympathy for children in Africa than austerity-hit Greeks, who could help themselves by paying their taxes.

In an interview with The Guardian, the managing director of the IMF said that she was not worried by the economic and social impact of austerity on the Mediterranean country.

"No, I think more of the little kids from a school in a little village in Niger who get teaching two hours a day, sharing one chair for three of them, and who are very keen to get an education. I have them in my mind all the time. Because I think they need even more help than the people in Athens," Ms Lagarde told the British newspaper.

"Do you know what? As far as Athens is concerned, I also think about all those people who are trying to escape tax all the time. All these people in Greece who are trying to escape tax."

Ms Lagarde went on to say that she thought "equally" about Greeks who were deprived of public services and of Greek citizens who did not pay their tax.

"I think they should also help themselves collectively," she said. Asked how, she replied: "By all paying their tax".

Asked by The Guardian if she was essentially saying to the Greeks and others in Europe that they had had a nice time and that it was now payback time, she responded: "That's right".

Ms Lagarde reiterated that the IMF had no intention of softening the austerity demands to which Greece agreed in return for a multi-billion euro bailout.

Opinion polls suggest that Syriza, a leftist, anti-austerity party that came came second in Greece's May 6 election, could to win the vote at a new election on June 17. There are fears that if Greece turns its back on the austerity program, it could be forced out of the eurozone, triggering a Europe-wide crisis.

http://www.theaustralian.com.au/business/in-depth/christine-lagarde-says-that-it-is-payback-time-for-greece/story-fnawdwo8-1226367715480

[Insula Dei]

Such a kind heart, our Christine. Almost too good for this fallen world.

[argentarius]

What a bitch.

[TheDeadFlagBlues]

A certain word that begins with a "c" comes to mind.

[ingemann]

Did she hurt the poor Greeks emotions, what a terrible person. I find it refreshing that she say that everybody, who have had to deal with this mess thinks. We have wasted five year which could have been used a lot better on eternal negotiation, to say nothing about the enormous capital transfer. I doubt many people have much patience with the Greeks right now, she justsaid it openly, while everyone else bite it in them.