Greece Conservatives Win Parliamentary Vote

Posted June 17th, 2012 at 2:45 pm (UTC-5)
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Greece's conservative New Democracy party is projected to win the country's parliamentary elections.

Official estimates show New Democracy winning 29.5 percent of the vote, with the leftist Syriza party receiving 27.1 percent.

Both have promised to renegotiate the harsh austerity conditions of Greece's bailout by the European Union and International Monetary Fund.

But, Antonis Samaras, New Democracy party leader, has criticized his leftist opponent, Alexis Tsipras, of policies he says will put Greece into a worse situation than it is in now.

Tsipras, leader of the Syriza party, called for the annulling of the austerity package altogether, a decision which could have forced Greece to leave Europe's common euro currency.

After an inconclusive election last month, the top three parties, including the socialist PASOK, were each given a chance to form a coalition, but none of the parties won enough support to put together a new government, prompting Sunday's repeat election.