This is my third time in the polling booth in just over a month.
In the last Euro elections there were 40 parties to choose from. I took the wad of voting papers, stuffed quickly in my purse, back home to use as note paper. These elections had only 20 political parties in our district. Poros is dumped in as part of the 'B' Piraeus region. Piraeus being the grotty port city outside Athens.
I used to love Piraeus, lived there for 10 years and didn't want to leave. Now I don't want to go back. The port area is full of boarded up buildings, roads which have been under construction it seems since I left over 20 years ago, empty shops, noise and grime.
Tonight we are expecting a change of government after years of harsh austerity measures, not that a new government will alter much. Many people feel betrayed. I just want their faces removed from my TV screen.
In 2015 the majority voted for Alexis Tsipras, a young, left wing PM, who promised to bring us out of the economic crisis when the country was on the brink of bankruptcy and I was stockpiling flour, rice and toilet paper to get us through certain years of poverty. Bankruptcy didn't come and we didn't leave the EU but our way of life changed drastically as he taxed the hell out of the middle class and left our 2 children with debt that will take many years to pay off.
He supported a minister (of the economy) who 'forgot' to mention an extra 2 million euros in his tax statement, another whose anarchist son was arrested and let free 14 times, a health minister who nastily abused anyone disagreeing with him, released 400 hard core criminals and confiscated homes and raided bank accounts for debts to the state.
How unpopular can you get?
Polling stations closed at 7pm and the results of the first exit polls have been announced. We have a new government and it looks as though it will have an outright majority.
It's July, it's hot, the beaches round the country today were full of Greek holiday makers and city dwellers getting away from the heat and bustle, but they voted first.*
No one expects the new PM to perform miracles, especially when he has the European Union nipping at his heels and Turkey on the other side threatening to blow Greece out of the Aegean. We shall continue to enjoy our coffee, sip our ouzo, discuss and debate. There will be blockades, protests, strikes and Molotov cocktails as usual.
Qué Sera Sera
* Wrong there. The turn out was only 56 percent. Even a greek can have too much of politics.
Born in NZ, 45 years in Greece.
It never ends does it. We vote but nothing changes for the better.
ReplyDeleteYou got it!
DeleteI thought the same and so did 44per cent of voters. I thought that the turn out was much higher.they all went to the beach and stayed there!
It’s the same all over. Corrupt politicians who tell us it’s our fault we are in a mess and we need to tighten our belts to get through it All the while their not only not tightening their belts but making huge profits!
ReplyDeleteMaybe we should just kill off all the politicians and start with a new batch
Hey, that's a bloody good idea! Get rid of the lot of them! Democracy, pah!
DeleteOccasionally one arrives who is young, fresh faced, and full of promise, then they turn out to be just like the others; corrupt, inefficient, and self-aggrandizing. I don't know why, but I'm thinking of Blair, who naive starry-eyed left wingers voted for, and he ended up creating the terrible Middle Eastern mess (and himself a multi millionaire)!
ReplyDeleteGot a few of those around here! 2 of them are in prison. Pity it doesn't happen to them all
DeleteYou are paying for your years of the good times.
ReplyDeleteYup, we spent all our money on ouzo and souvlaki, and women, apoarently
DeleteAnd didn't pay taxes.
DeleteElections are always tiring, it sharpens our sense of lack of control over matters bigger than us.
ReplyDeleteVery tiring, I think that's why so few people didn't vote, and the elections were in the middle of summer. Waste of time
DeleteI would rather read about your elections than Brexit.
ReplyDeleteAll that hype and propaganda gets too much. Just get it over with already. I remember grexit being a thunder cloud overhead for years. We just got blade about it all in the end and it never happened
DeleteBlasé...why can't we edit these darn comments?
DeleteI knew what you meant.
ReplyDeleteEuropean countries may call themselves Democracies... But they follow the views of Socialism.
ReplyDelete"Socialism means direct control and management of the industries and social services by the workers through a democratic government based on their nationwide economic organization."
Which sounds wonnnnderful!!!!! Free health care for all! Free this and free that! But-reality-means-nothing-is-free.
The workers have to pay for the *Free* stuff, which the Government *Gives out*.
And per human nature, the leaders, who push Socialism, are not pure and wonderful. They push Socialism, in order to be "on top," and able to make money.
Socialism is Pie In The Sky thinking.
It is worse than that. It is out and out LYING.
And the people, who believe, those who push Socialism, are guilty of being hood-winked by liars.
But once the people allow Socialism to be installed, it is entrenched. So called "Free Health Care," to make people happy. But at what cost? Your children are paying the cost.