Greek Government’s Chance to Say ‘No’ to Austerity Measures

By Kinthia Ktena

“Europe’s voters have spoken – and what they had to say has shaken capitals across the continent as far right and some far left parties made significant gains in elections to the European parliament.,” said Bruce Stokes, Director of Global Economic Attitudes at the Pew Research Center in Washington, DC.

Stokes believes that the results of the elections were prospective and consistent with the findings of a recent survey of the Pew Research Center. An opinion poll published in early May showed the great displeasure of the Europeans at the European Union. According to him, “EU is out of touch, intrusive, inefficient and unwilling to listen.” He also highlights that these were the loaded emotions that drove voters to the polls, together with the ongoing economic stagnation of Southern Europe countries, such as Greece and Spain.

The results in France, Britain and Greece signified voting against the governments of these countries, underlined Stokes. What is interesting now is monitoring what will happen in Britain, Spain and Greece to see if their governments will move to the right or, when it comes to Greece and Spain, to the left in an attempt to take back their voters. Also, he stresses the need to see “the future direction of Europe and national politics.”

Bruce Stokes concludes that now the Greek government has a reason to go to Brussels and say “we cannot go on with such austerity measures; it is a matter of political cost.”