weblog2011webnet: Ballot Box Breakdown: How Europe’s Elections Will Heat Up the Debt Crisis | Business

Monday, May 7, 2012

Ballot Box Breakdown: How Europe’s Elections Will Heat Up the Debt Crisis | Business | TIME.com

Ballot Box Breakdown: How Europe’s Elections Will Heat Up the Debt Crisis | Business | TIME.com ;.. But perhaps the most misguided notion of all was the apparent assumption among European leaders that voters would meekly accept that strategy, despite the economic suffering and social upheaval it has been creating.

That delusion was shattered on Sunday. In France, Socialist candidate François Hollande beat out Nicolas Sarkozy, one of the key architects of the euro zone’s economic policies, to become the country’s new President. Even more telling, in Greece, the two main political parties, which have supported the biting austerity program mandated by the euro zone in return for two massive bailouts, got trounced. About 60% of the vote went to smaller parties, most of which campaigned against the pledges of austerity and reform made by Athens. Most notably, support for one such party, the Coalition of the Radical Left, known as Syriza, more than tripled from the last election, making it the second largest party in parliament with one-sixth of the 300 seats.

(MORE: Socialist Hollande Defeats Sarkozy in French Election)