Greeks enraged by economic hardship voted on Sunday in a deeply uncertain election that could reignite Europe’s debt crisis and throw into doubt the country’s future in the euro zone. At stake in the first general election since Greece detonated a wider European crisis at the end of 2009 is whether it will stick to the terms of a deeply unpopular EU/IMF bailout or start down a path that could take it out of the euro. Leaders from all sides emphasized the importance of the vote – which pollsters say is impossible to call – for the future of Greece, now suffering one of the worst recessions in postwar Europe. “We all agree that these elections are perhaps the most crucial and today each of us is deciding not only who will govern the country but also Greece’s path for the next decades,” said outgoing technocrat Prime Minister Lucas Papademos, as he cast his vote in Athens. Opinion polls indicate voters hit by record unemployment, collapsing businesses and steep wage cuts will send to parliament an unprecedented number of small parties opposed to austerity and punish New Democracy and Socialist PASOK – the two parties who have ruled Greece for decades. They are the only major forces backing the bailouts that fended off bankruptcy but caused deep hardship. The prospect that New Democracy and PASOK will fail to win enough votes for a coalition government, despite finishing first and second, has raised the risk of a prolonged period of uncertainty as they seek allies from anti-bailout parties. But Papademos said he thought a new government would be formed this week. International lenders and investors fear success for up to seven small parties opposed to the bailout could lead to Greece reneging on the bailout terms, dragging the euro zone back into the worst crisis since its creation. Many voters flinched and turned their head away at a polling station in the southern Athens suburb of Ilioupoli when asked if they had voted for one of the big pro-bailout parties.
“WE ARE ALREADY BANKRUPT”: Some shrugged off threats that Greece will go bankrupt if it abandons the bailout. “I don’t think that voting for a small party will make us go bankrupt. We already are,” said 53 year-old Panagiotis, a craftsman, after voting for the conservative Independent Greeks. Euro zone paymaster Germany has warned there would be “consequences” to an anti-bailout vote and the EU and IMF insist whoever wins the election must stick to austerity if they want to receive the aid that keeps Greece afloat.