In the last weeks, millions of Europeans have decided whom they were going to entrust with the governments of their countries for the coming years. The German, Greek and Portuguese peoples went to the polls to opt for the candidate, the political party, the ideology that they find most suitable to face the challenges of our days. Big surprises? Certainly.

GERMANY

On the 27th of September, the citizens of the Federal Republic of Germany chose continuity; continuity as regards their Federal Chancellor, not their government. With a result of 33.8% of the votes, and despite losing a 1.4% of their support, the CDU/CSU and, therefore, Angela Markel won the elections. Nonetheless, their main allies in the previous government, the social democratic SDP registered the worst result in its history, getting the 23% of votes, a 11.2% less than in the previous elections. On the other hand, the significant winners of these elections were the liberals of the FDP, with a result of 14.6% of votes, a 4.8% more than in the previous elections, as well as the leftist Die Linke, which got an 11.8% of votes (+3.2) and the green Die Grüne, with a result of 10.7% (+2.6%).

Despite the great dissatisfaction of a large part of German citizens and the determined opposition of many German trade unions, Angela Merkel decided to abandon the coalition with the social democrats and opted for a new government with the liberals. With this coalition, Angela Merkel got the necessary majority of seats to form a government and continue as Chancellor.

GREECE

The case of Greece, on the other hand, is a clear example of a break with past and shows a determined commitment of the Greek people to make the politics of their country significantly change. On the 4th of October, the Socialists of the PASOK reached a resounding result of 43.92% of the votes, with 160 deputies in the 300-deputies Greek Parliament, which results in absolute majority. The Socialist Giorgios Papandreou finally surpassed the Conservatives of New Democracy, which achieved the 33,48% of the votes and 91 seats. Corruption scandals and the government inability to deal with the violent street uprisings were two main factors that made the Conservative Costas Caramanlis, now former Prime Minister of Greece, lose the elections. As regards the Communists of the KKE, they got a 7.54% of the votes and 21 seats, whilst the extreme-right got a 5.63% and 15 seats. Moreover, the extreme leftist Syriza achieved the 4.60% and 13 seats. With the Green Party not having achieved the necessary 3% of the votes to be represented in the Greek Parliament, the five previously mentioned parties will occupy their seats for this new term.

With their absolute majority, the Greek Socialists did not have to look for support in any other Greek party and, therefore, they immediately formed the new Government. Thanks to these results, Giorgios Papandreou will have enough support from the people to manage a complicated economical and environmental situation. As he stated himself, “the course will not be easy and efforts will have to be made”.

PORTUGAL

In the third place, the results of the Portuguese elections can be considered to be similar to the case of Greece. However, the Portuguese people did not decide to change their Prime Minister; on the contrary, they renew their support to the Socialist José Sócrates. Althought it has lost its absolute majority, the Portuguese Socialist Party (PS) won the elections with a 36.6%. Its main rival, the centre-right Social Democratic Party (PSD), got a 29.1% of the votes. With a 10.4%, the Conservative Social Democratic Centre – Popular Party (CDS-PP) became the third Portuguese political force, whilst the Marxist Left Bloc (B.E.) saw how its support registered a 3.5% increase, getting the 9.8% of the Portuguese votes. The Communist and Green Coalition of the CDU also got a better percentage than in the previous elections and achieved the 7.8% of the votes.

The results of the Portuguese elections lead to a very fragmented Portuguese Parliament and forced the Socialist Prime Minister José Sócrates to look for the support of other political parties. What many media summarized as “Socialists win; the extreme left, too”, has set up a complicated scenario for Sócrates.

The cases of Germany, Greece and Portugal are clear examples that show how the European people are diversifying their political choices. However, the great lines seem to be maintained. |