Report on the second round of the Regional and Municipal Elections in Greece

The second round of the local authorities’ elections in Greece took place on Sunday, November 14 2010.

1. The new, interesting but also alarming element of these elections was the increasing abstention. The trend that was noted in the first round (around 47-48%), increased to almost 60% in the central Region of Attiki in the second round. This radical increase of abstention shows the increasing discontent and the lack of political representation that large masses of voters express. According to the polls, a large part of the people that abstended rejects the bipartisan policies, but still does not recognize themselves in one of the exisiting alternatives. SYNASPISMOS strongly opposes this type of electoral behavior, which, despite the abstentees' intentions, objectively helps the current political bipartisan system, which counts on the alienation of people from participating in movements, trade unions, social and political fronts that defy neoliberal politics.

2. The number of votes and the percentage of the two bigger parties (PASOK and New Democracy) hits a record low, despite the fact that PASOK and New Democracy “shared” all 13 Regions (PASOK won 8 Regions and New Democracy the remaining 5). PASOK received 1.100.000 less votes in comparison to the last Parliamentary Elections (October 2009), while the right wing “New Democracy” lost another 600.000 votes. It is very important to note that he two bigger parties failed to exceed 70% in total.

3. The estimation of the national percentage of all parties, according to the results of the first round of the elections in 7 November, is the following (in parenthesis the comparison with their percentage in the 2009 National Elections) :

4. The total percentage of the various Left forces shows a significant increase: It is now nationally estimated around 23%. More significantly, in the central region of Attiki, the lists supported by the various parties and organizations of the wider Left (KKE, SYN/SYRIZA, Democratic Left, ANTARSYA, Ecologists-Greens etc) gathered an impressive, historically high 33%.

However, a divided left is not able to promote alternative policies effectively. SYNASPISMOS strongly believes that the duty and the need to overcome the existing fragmentations and build a wide alliance of all political and social forces opposing the Memorandum, the PASOK policy and the IMF-ECB-EU Troika is now becoming even more urgent. SYNASPISMOS will continue to work on our unitarian plan, to have a left that can struggle together on a wide spectrum of alternative policies from the “smallest to the biggest problem”. Furthermore, we will continue to work with people who differentiate themselves from PASOK, who are disillusioned with the harsh neoliberal policies of PASOK. We still believe that the splitting stance of the leadership of KKE, on every field possible (trade unions, social movements, parliamentary initiatives) only adds to the division and objectively helps the government to apply measures that seem inevitable, but in reality are not.

5. As mentioned in our previous message (sent out after the first round), SYNASPISMOS and SYRIZA fought the elections in alliance with other radical left forces and socialist oriented groups that have disassociated themselves from PASOK. The lists supported by the above mentioned forces have won representation (with one or more delegates) in all 13 Regional Councils in the first round. In the Region of Athens (Attiki), where almost half of the national population votes, our list, “Cooperation for Attiki-No to the Memorandum”, a coalition of SYN forces ans PASOK dissidents, gathered 6,2% (our highest regional percentage) and elected 3 delegates to the biggest Regional Council of the country.

6. In the first round of the Municipal Elections, SYN and SYRIZA forces already managed to elect 2 Mayors (in the Municipalities of Lykovrisi and Saronikos, both in the wider Attiki region). In the second round of the Municipal Elections, SYNASPISMOS secured the majority in the Municipality of Patra, the third largest city in Greece, in collaboration with a group of PASOK dissidents and the Democratic Left. In the wider region of Attiki, SYNASPISMOS and SYRIZA candidates made it to the second round in 6 Municipalities and managed to win the majority in 5 of them (Elliniko, Nea Ionia, Eleysina, Keratsini/Drapetsona and Filothei/Psychiko). Unfortunately, we regret to inform you that in the historically significant and well-known for its left tradition, Municipality of Kaisariani (in the region of Attiki), SYN and SYRIZA forces lost the majority after 12 years. The candidate of PASOK won the second round for just 12 votes, while the leadership of KKE publically ordered their local voters to cast a null vote in the second round.

7. In the rest of Greece SYNASPISMOS forces participated in the winning lists in the islands of Ikaria and Limnos (both the two newly elected Mayors are SYN members). Especially for the island of Ikaria, we need to note that the list supported by SYN managed to get the majority, despite a crescendo of lies and misinformation spread by the leadership of KKE. Our list in Ikaria was also supported by the local organizations of PASOK and New Democracy, while the list of KKE, which was defeated after a damaging ruling of the island for more than 15 years, was officially supported by leading figures and MPs of “New Democracy” in the second round.

8. In total, SYN managed to elect 8 Mayors and such a number of Municipal Councilors all over Greece, that again makes the party the 3^rd biggest political force in the municipal level (KKE won just one Municipality nationally).