To secure a working majority in the Greek Parliament a party must hold 151 seats. Following yesterday's (6/5/12) election the two party's that formed the previous governing coalition both lost seats. The centre-left Pasok Party dropped to 41 seats and the centre-right New Democracy Party dropped to 108 seats. As a result they are unable to form a coalition without a third party. The Syriza coalition of hard-left (Communist) parties which came second with 52 seats will not form a coalition with either Pasok or New Democracy but will only just be able to form a coalition with the other four party's who won seats including the fascist Golden Dawn Party which is highly unlikely. The only possibility for avoiding a new election is Pasok, New Democracy and the Democratic Left Party forming a three-way coalition. Even this looks unlikely and the leader of New Democracy Antonis Samaras has already infromed the Greek President that he is unable to form a coalition.
The reason for the collapse of the centrist party's and rise of a kaleidoscope of minority party's is a protest against the European Union (EU) bailout package which represents probably the largest humanitarian intervention in Europe since the Marshall Plan. So presumably if there is a fresh election Party's like Syriza will be campaigning on a platform of giving the IMF and every in the EU all their money back and re-introducing the 75% of Greek debt that has been written off.
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