Pro-bailout party wins, but future uncertain for Greece

“Unless whoever gets elected can put together a government on Monday that is stable and viable, then I think it’s a matter of time before Greece has to leave the eurozone,” said Roman Gerodimos, a lecturer in international current affairs at Bournemouth University in Britain.

After the results became clear Sunday, German Finance Minister Wolfgang Schaeuble called the vote a decision to “forge ahead” with far-reaching reforms.

The office of German Chancellor Angela Merkel’s office said she had called to congratulate Mr. Samaras and assumes “that Greece will keep to its European commitments.” The Obama administration and the Group of 7 industrial countries also sent encouraging messages to Mr. Samaras.

Fear factor

Analysts said that many voters supported New Democracy out of fear of such a chaotic and uncertain future.

“If New Democracy wins, that would mean that fear has played the biggest role,” Theodore Pelagidis, an economist and the University of Piraeus in Greece, had said.

New Democracy has said it will ask for a relaxation of the terms of the bailout — allowing Greece more time to repay its debts. German Foreign Minister Guido Westerwelle indicated flexibility on that point Sunday evening, though he repeated his government’s insistence that the agreements must be upheld.

“There cannot be substantial changes to the agreements, but I can well imagine talking again about timelines, against the background of the fact that, in reality, there was a political standstill in Greece over recent weeks because of the elections,” he told ARD television.

Analysts say Greek officials for the most part would continue to toe the European line on austerity.

“I suspect [New Democracy] would continue with the structural adjustment and stabilization program — they said they would do,” said Costas Lapavitsas, an economist at the University of London, speaking from Athens.

“I think this is a dead end,” he added, saying that the policy would merely delay the country’s inevitable exit from the currency.

Analysts say Syriza is likely to play a powerful opposition role in the new parliament.

“The gap is not big, and that’s not great, because even if they do put together a coalition government, it means Syriza will think they have the social legitimacy to resist whatever measures are being taken,” Mr. Gerodimos said.

“That will take us into the next two or three months, and it’s not just down to what the Greek government does, it’s also what the lenders do, what the EU does and what the [International Monetary Fund] does and so on. It will make the negotiations and dynamics that more complicated.”

Europe will be watching intently to see how coalition talks unfold over the next few days.

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