Anti-austerity won the election in Greece

Yesterday, a general election was performed in Greece. As a result, anti-austerity Syriza party achieved a great victory.

Syriza is radical leftists opposing to austerity policy that has been proceeded by ruling New Democracy party (ND) following the suggestion by the EU and IMF. Syriza has won near to the majority of the seats in the diet. It is searching another party to make a coalition.

The Guardian: Greece elections: anti-austerity Syriza party sweeps to stunning victory

It is likely that crucial spending cuts during these some years harmed the citizens in Greece. Social security, health insurance, wages of officials were considerably reduced. It is no doubt that the policy of ND was unpopular to citizens.

However, the origin of this issue is the financial maltreatment continuously behaved by the Greece government. Large amount of debt and false reports regarding the economic situation brought the whole EU a crisis. The previous general election was a touchstone to evaluate the sincerity of Greece. The victory of ND relieved not only many European people but also investors in other countries. Citizens in Greece could not stand it anymore.

This winning of Syriza is definitely a risk of finance. Syriza is willing to negotiate EU and IMF for postponement of returning the debt. But persuasion will be hardly successful. I am wondering Syriza has an elixir to recover Greece without deteriorating pain.

In general, Southern Europeans are more optimistic and epicurean than Northern. Whenever I visited Italy, I was surprised to see the people so looking pleasured. On the other hand, Greek people looked not so delighted, but either not so pessimistic. It was impressive that the sun was extremely shiny in Greece. It was the most important difference from Northern Europe, I think.

My past entry: Journey to Greece (2)

I am not sure the new government will overcome this crisis responding the voice of voters to cry for help. In my personal feeling, EU legislation is too strict for Greece to adhere. Greece is not Germany. It is not surprising if Greece will withdraw from EU in the near future.

By the way, Japan is similar to Greece in terms of financial status. Although there are many differences between two countries, the case in Greece is somewhat suggestive to Japanese.

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