Greece’s outgoing leftwing prime minister Alexis Tsipras on Sunday declared he was confident of winning a second mandate for a “fighting government” to reform and revive the crisis-hit nation’s economy, as voters cast ballots in a knife-edge race.
As voting opened under sunny skies in a tight contest between Tsipras’ Syriza party and the conservatives, the boyish leftwinger said: “The Greek people… will take their future into their own hands… and seal the transition to a new era.”
The 41-year-old, who cast his ballot in the Athens working-class district of Kypseli, faces a strong challenge from the conservative New Democracy party led by ex-defence minister Vangelis Meimarakis, with eve-of-election polls giving Tsipras a slight edge.
Greek voters will elect “a fighting government” ready for the “confrontations necessary to move forward with reforms”, said Tsipras, who in July agreed more punishing austerity for the nation in exchange for its third financial rescue in five years.
Ballots close at 1600 GMT, when exit polls will be released, with first official results after 1800 GMT.
Casting his vote, 61-year-old Meimarakis, a bushy eye-browed former defence minister who has campaigned largely against the instability of the seven-month Tsipras government, said: “Voters want to send away … the lies, the misery, the posers and bring truth and real people.”
Over 9.8 million Greeks were registered to vote for a new government which, whoever the winner, will face the tough task of pushing through painful new tax rises and pension reforms agreed under a three-year bailout deal adopted across-the-board by parliament last month.
Tsipras, who was elected in January on an anti-austerity platform, angered many in Greece by agreeing the deal.
“Greeks wanted to try out Syriza but saw the results, they’re a bunch of liars,” 58-year-old conservative voter Marika Geraki told AFP.
– ‘Voting with sadness’ –
Many voters were casting ballots with a heavy heart knowing that the weeks ahead will see the enactment of the reforms Tsipras agreed in July in return for a new 86-billion-euro ($97-billion) international rescue.
“I’m voting with great sadness,” said Nikos, a former engineer. “My two children are unemployed and living on my pension, which has been cut from 1,200 euros to 750 euros.”
“I hope better days will come but I don’t see it happening,” he told Skai TV.
“Whoever’s elected the result will be the same,” said a pensioner named Yiannis.
Tsipras in January won the vote with 36.34 percent, becoming Greece’s youngest prime minister in 150 years and a beacon for anti-austerity campaigners across the European Union.
He took office as irate Greeks ran out of patience with the dire belt-tightening reforms imposed by the debt-hit country’s international creditors. At the time New Democracy trailed well behind, winning 27.81 percent of the vote.
But the latest polls showed Tsipras leading Meimarakis by only a narrow margin, ranging from 0.7 to 3.0 percent.
His cash-for-reforms deal with Greece’s international lenders in July, signed days after Greeks overwhelmingly voted “No” to more austerity in a national referendum, upset many of his own supporters, with a fifth of Syriza’s MPs quitting the party and setting up a new one — Popular Unity.
– ‘We want new people’ –
But even after the U-turn and the broken promises, many voters believe he has their interests at heart and represents a break with past leaders perceived as corrupt.
“Tsipras, Tsipras, Tsipras, we want new people,” 63-year-old Efthymia Xanthou told AFP.
“We want to be done with thieves, first the Germans and then the conservatives and socialists,” she told AFP, referring to the two parties that until Tsipras’ victory in January had alternated in power for the past 40 years.
Tsipras is hoping for a strong enough majority to implement the reforms. But in a slap in the face this week, his flamboyant former finance minister Yanis Varoufakis said he would vote for the breakaway hardliners rather than Tsipras.
Manolis Alexakis, a political sociologist at the University of Crete, says Greeks are weary after successive votes and never-ending austerity.
“People seem tired,” he said. “The message is, please finish whatever should be done.”
Meimarakis has cautioned voters against giving a second chance to a politician who publicly admitted he opposed the bailout he signed.
“Do you know of any other prime minister who brokered a deal, brought it to parliament, voted for it and signed it, whilst saying he does not believe in it?” Meimarakis told the To Vima weekly.
With nine parties hoping to enter parliament, no group is likely to secure an outright majority and Tsipras’s Syriza party could well need an ally from among those he says he despises.