Brussels, 27/05/2014 (Agence Europe) - The recovery promised for this year and the improvement of the economic indicators do not appear to have been enough to convince the citizens of the countries under rescue programmes that their efforts are starting to pay off. With the exception of Cyprus, the governments implementing economic adjustment programmes linked to the economic assistance plan took a serious hammering in the European elections. In Greece and Portugal, the opposition parties are looking to capitalise on their positive results at national level.
Differing interpretations, but reshuffle on the cards. Alexis Tsipras was the figurehead in the campaign of the European left wing (GUE/NGL at the EP), but still had Greek national politics in his sights throughout the process. On Sunday evening, he seemed more interested in the potential political implications of the election results in Greece than in the composition of the future EP itself. He repeated his calls for early elections in Greece, arguing that Prime Minister Antonis Samaras has lost his legitimacy. Tsipras' party, Syriza, came out on top in the European elections with 26.57% of the votes, compared to 22.72% for Samaras' New Democracy party. Tspiras said that the people had spoken out against austerity policies and that it was now time to let them choose. On Monday, he met Greek President Karolos Papoulias. He spoke of “disharmony” between the general public and their current representation in the Parliament, stressing that the coalition government had lost 11 percentage points since the national elections of June 2012.
The Greek coalition government is based on New Democracy and the Socialist party, Pasok, which won 8% of the votes. This gives the coalition 30% of the votes in total, pointed out the Samaras government, whose reading of the results is quite the opposite of that of Syriza. Samaras also emphasised what he described as the “failure” of Tsipras' party in the regional elections. A government spokesperson, Simos Kedikoglou, quoted by the Greek press agency ANA, stated that voting in the European elections is “traditionally (…) a vote of protest which usually is in favour of the opposition”. The young flag-bearer of the European Left made an earlier attempt to bring down the Samaras government in November of last year, but his motion of no confidence was rejected. The Greek press reported that a cabinet reshuffle is believed to be on the cards.
Portugal, musical chairs ahead of forthcoming general elections. The shift observed in the European elections confirmed the setback experienced in September by the Centre-Right government of Pedro Passos Coelho, in the municipal elections. On Sunday, the opposition Socialist party came in first with 31.45% of the votes, whilst the government coalition formed by the Social Democrat Party PSD and the CDS failed to reach 30% (27.7%). The alliance of Portuguese Communists and Ecologists became the third political force in the country at the European elections, winning 12.69% of the votes cast. The Communist Party subsequently announced its intention to table a motion of censure against the government. According to rumours on Tuesday, the Socialist party supports this motion. The party's secretary general, Antonio José Seguro, said that the government had “had its day”. A government source said that there is no feeling that the governmental coalition is in any danger, as the differences of opinion between the Socialists and the Communists are no secret, particularly on membership of the euro. The Portuguese prime minister said that the mission “of this government (was) to see out this term in office in the name of the stability of the country needs in order to be properly governed”. The general elections are scheduled for autumn 2015. The turnout rate for the European elections, furthermore, fell once again, to 34.5%.
In Ireland, power being called into question. The rout of the Irish coalition government has led Eamon Gilmore to step down from his position as leader of the Labour Party. The results of the European elections showed that the opposition parties, such as Sinn Fein (GUE/NGL) and other independent candidates, well-known for their opposition to austerity, have the wind in their sails. Theoretically, the government has to take further measures to cut its deficit, but the Irish press described its room for manoeuvre as limited. The Irish prime minister, Enda Kenny, told RTE that “90% plus of this adjustment” had been made. “We have restored stability to the country from an economic point of view, but I know the problem is people don't see that in their weekly lives”, he said. Ireland completed its rescue plan at the end of 2013. However, the employment figures published on Monday did not show much of an improvement.
Relative status quo in Cyprus. A year after Nicosia was handed a painful rescue plan, the party in government managed to escape the protest vote. The current Cypriot president, Nicos Anastasiades, was forced to impose heavy losses on savers and to remodel the island's economy, which had previously been based on financial institutions. Anastasiades' party, DISY, saw its share of the vote rise to 37.8%. The popularity of the Communist Party, AKEL, on the other hand, fell (by 8%). The wait-and-see attitude and poor management of public finances of Anastasiades' predecessor, Communist Demetris Christofias, were highlighted by the Cypriot press as an explanation for this setback. Christofias failed to react to warnings from the eurozone and remained impassive in negotiations on the reduction of the Greek debt borne by the private sector, with the well-publicised fallout for the Cypriot banking institutions. The big loser in the elections in Cyprus was the turnout, barely 43.97%, considerably down from 59.4% in 2009. The Cypriot president has expressed his concerns about the number of people who stayed away. (EL)