Ten million Greek voters went to the polls for the second time in just two months, after the May 6 elections failed to yield a definitive ruling. On Sunday, Greeks headed to the polling stations in what many considered a referendum of "yes or no" on the euro. Sunday's results again show that the Greeks are truly finding it hard to decide. Athens wants to have it both ways, but that doesn't work in reality. The Greeks don't really want the EU's austerity program, which will harm both their salaries and their pensions. They also don't want to go back to their old currency, the drachma, which would lead to at least a 50 percent reduction in the value of the new currency. The result: a tight victory for Antonis Samaras' conservative New Democracy party, who has gained the blessing of German Chancellor Angela Merkel, over the great opponent of the austerity program, leftist leader of the SYRIZA parliamentary group Alexis Tsipras. The exit polls, incidentally, also granted the neo-Nazi "Golden Dawn" party 6% of the vote, the same percentage it received in the May 6th elections. On the eve of elections, there were two hopes: that one of the parties would win a definitive majority and that the xenophobic, ultranationalist Golden Dawn party, which is capitalizing on Greece's severe economic crisis, would disappear from view completely. Neither of these things happened. According to the results, the Right won, but not the kind of victory that will allow the Right to institute the kind of policy it desires. Tsipras, 37, sees himself as the winner regardless of the results, because he knows that the Right needs the socialist PASOK party to form a government. A coalition of this sort appears to ensure a policy of staying in the euro bloc, much to the relief of many on the continent, but it will be difficult for such a coalition to sustain itself and implement policy. For this reason, radical leftist Tsipras has no intention of joining the coalition. The conclusion: another round of elections is on the horizon. The elections in Greece are grating on everyone's nerves. The G-20 meeting in Los Cabos, Mexico commenced on Monday and Greece is on everyone's mind. China hasn't been shy about proclaiming its concern. The EU is stressing out the entire world as it could spark a new global economic crisis, far worse than the one in 2008. "To be or not to be in the euro bloc," former Greek Prime Minister Lucas Papademos asked on Friday, paraphrasing William Shakespeare's "Hamlet." But sadly, the events seem to resemble a Greek tragedy: a 6.5% drop in the gross national product, unemployment at 22.6%, hysterical citizens taking all their money out of the emptying banks and public coffers that are likely to be empty by mid-July. Eighty percent of Greeks want to remain part of the euro bloc. This is the only thing they have in common today with Merkel. Well, actually, they have one other thing in common: a national soccer team advancing to the next round in the Euro League Championships. Imagine how much free electricity could be generated from the tension in the soccer game between Greece and Germany.
