Greece Dodges Leftist Bullet, But Bigger Battles Loom

IBD Editorials ^ | June 18, 2012 | Editor

[Kaslin]

EU: Staring down the abyss of isolation offered by the far left, Greece's voters had the sense to pull back, electing a pro-bailout center-right party in Sunday's vote and staying in the euro. But are they ready for real austerity?

As surprising and relieving as it was to see Greeks vote for the New Democracy party which took 29.4% of the votes in Sunday's multiparty election, the result is the best of bad alternatives.

Voting in New Democracy for a second time since the government failed in May bought time, but the real issue is whether Greece has the will to move out of its big-government morass and put itself on a fiscally sustainable path that empowers the private sector.

Apparently, just the prospect of a victory by the far-left Syriza party, which was riding high in the polls all the way up until election day, was enough to scare Greece's voters straight: Huge bank runs drained as much as $1 billion a day from Greek banks as fearful citizens yanked their euros out, creating a sense of panic.

Greeks were doing it for good reason: Syriza was effectively proposing that Greece default on its debt, reject Europe's bailouts-with-strings attached, and leave the euro to return to the drachma.

For them, it meant they could print money at will to keep the spending flowing for Greece's vast welfare and public employee union state. But as it would turn the currency to rubbish, it would effectively amount to a socialist expropriation of the country's savers.

[Zionist Conspirator]

Okay . . . why is the “right wing” party pro-EU and the “left wing” party anti-EU?