Post date: Jun 17, 2012 9:49:34 PM
ATHENS, GREECE (JUNE 17, 2012) (GREEK POOL) - Greece's radical leftist SYRIZA party conceded defeat on Sunday (June 17) but vowed to continue its fight against the punishing terms of an EU/IMF bailout saving the country from bankruptcy.
With pro-bailout parties on course to secure a parliamentary majority in Greece's elections, radical left leader Alexis Tsipras says his party will continue to fight.
Parties committed to the bailout were on course to secure a parliamentary majority.
Greece's conservative New Democracy party held a 3.5 point lead in Sunday's vote after 80 percent of the ballots were counted, the country's interior ministry said. New Democracy had 30.1 percent of the vote, while the radical leftist SYRIZA party was running second with 26.6 percent.
The PASOK Socialists were set to take 12.50 percent of the vote.
Because of a 50-seat bonus given to the party which comes first, that result would give New Democracy and PASOK 161 seats in the 300-seat parliament, in an alliance committed to a 130 billion euro ($164 billion) EU/IMF bailout.
Speaking at his party headquarters SYRIZA leader Alexis Tsipras said that the new government would need to be different from those of the past.
"The government that will be formed with New Democracy at its core needs to seriously take into consideration that on big issues it can no longer proceed as previous governments had done. It cannot proceed insisting on a policy which has been proven to be in complete disharmony with the public will," he said.
Tsipras, a 37-year-old former communist who has shot from obscurity to global celebrity in a matter of weeks, called Samaras to concede defeat, a SYRIZA spokesman told Reuters.
The result, however, exposed a deeply divided society, and could leave an emboldened SYRIZA leading new protests against a coalition governing with significantly less than 50 percent of the electorate's support.
"As of Monday we will continue our battle having the confidence that the future does not belong to the terrorised but to the bearers of hope. A new day for Greece has already dawned," Tsipras said.
Earlier PASOK leader Evangelos Venizelos called for a government that would include SYRIZA.
"There must be a government tomorrow, a government capable of securing the operation as a state, the economy and society. A government capable of carrying out with success, the second phase of negotiations with our European partners within the framework of European procedures. And to lead the country to a better, not a worse, state. That kind of government is a government of national responsibility with the participation at least of New Democracy, SYRIZA, PASOK and the Democratic Left," he said.
But SYRIZA ruled out joining a coalition that would stick to the punishing bailout terms that have helped condemn Greece to five years of record recession.
Tsipras had vowed to tear up the terms, betting that European leaders cannot afford the financial market turmoil that could be unleashed by cutting a member of the euro zone loose.