‘Nobody’ leads polls ahead of election

So deep is the general disgust with the country’s bickering political class that if there was a political party called Nobody it would have a clean sweep in an early general election slated for February 19...

Where voters were once largely divided between the two parties that have ruled the state since the collapse of the junta in 1974, a vacuum now threatens to plunge the country into longer-term political chaos.

In an opinion poll issued on November 13 by pollsters MRB, the answer "Nobody/I don't know/Another party" scored a combined 29.7 percent among those asked, the highest score of any other answer in the survey.

The trend has been growing for months as citizens fed up with lender-prescribed austerity measures to ward off default increasingly blame traditional parties for their woes. The February election is unlikely to produce a clear winner.

"There is no party out there which can bring something new, bring a solution or take us out of the crisis," said Anna Georgantidou, a 23-year old receptionist in Athens.

Appalled by politicians she feels are more interested in jockeying for position than saving the country, Georgantidou said she will abstain or cast an invalid vote.

With the threshold to enter parliament at three percent, pundits say the number of parties expected to get in will likely rise from five to seven or more, significantly increasing the chances that the next government will be an unruly coalition.

Having suffered three-years of budget cuts and tax hikes that have devastated incomes, wiped out jobs and pushed the country into a fourth year of recession, Greeks see no existing party as capable of rule.

Even though the economic downturn has forced her to move back in with her parents to save money, Georgantidou does not necessarily oppose belt tightening prescribed by the European Union and International Monetary Fund, because she sees it as a way Greece can return to prosperity, if done right.

But she believes the traditional parties are too close to vested interests to tackle the crisis measures effectively.

"I want someone who can implement a plan. I want someone who can give us hope, not to just say that things will be better, but to actually improve them," she said.

Rise of upstarts

Several movements are challenging the traditional stalwarts – former prime minister George Papandreou’s Pasok and Antonis Samaras’ New Democracy – who have teamed up to support a short-term crisis government with the far-right Popular Orthodox Rally (Laos).

With the minnows' chances of entering parliament boosted by contempt for the big parties, the pie will be sliced into even smaller pieces, leading to protracted negotiations and further complicating the creation of a stable coalition.

On the streets of Athens, tens of thousands of protesters marched against Prime Minister Lucas Papademos's coalition government on Thursday to warn that he should not pursue further austerity measures than those already agreed with the country’s troika of lenders – the European Union and the International Monetary Fund.

The MRB poll showed that, when asked which of the top two parties could deal with the country’s problems, only 7.6 percent of respondents chose Pasok, while New Democracy got 16.3 percent. "Neither" scored 66.8 percent.

More than two thirds in the poll believed only a coalition could take Greece out of the crisis, versus just 13 percent who trusted one-party rule.

Pundits recall that the last two coalition cabinets collapsed within months in 1989 and 1990, not something the country can afford now.

New Democracy, which leads the Pasoks 33 percent to 18 in opinion polls when nonvoters are excluded but not by enough to form a government outright, does not see it that way.

On Thursday, its leader Antonis Samaras effectively launched a campaign by saying he needed to win a full majority to reverse the austerity reforms taken under Greece's bailout for more pro-growth strategies.

"We are working towards an absolute majority to implement our programme without delay and procrastination," Samaras said. "When we can, we will change all that needs to be changed."

It is exactly such politicking that has enraged voters while they watch an austerity-driven recession force shops to shut down, drive down real estate and other asset prices and push unemployment to a record high of more than 18 percent.

"Disgust, that's what I feel," said 25-year old Nikos, who declined to give his last name.

Some hope Papademos may be able to keep the usually warring factions together to push on with reforms and create positive momentum for cooperation later.

"Our track record is very bad concerning coalition governments. If this one proves to be efficient and successful, then the situation would be totally different," said Costas Panagopoulos, head of Alco pollsters .

"If not, it would be a disaster ... We have to survive, we have to remain in the European Union. We have to stay in the eurozone. There is no other way for the country."

Upstarts back incumbents

Panayiotis Kouroublis, elected MP for Pasok but now an independent, wants to bring leftist parties and movements – including the Fotis Kouvelis’ Democratic Left and the Movement of Independents – together in a force that could supplant Papandreou's party as the second biggest.

Like many critics of Papandreou's fallen government, he argues enough measures had been approved but that the former prime minister had dragged his feet on many reforms, and specifically tackling rampant tax evasion by wealthy Greeks.

"For two years now they've been cutting salaries, pensions, and social rights but they don't fight with the same courage against high prices, the cartels and the injustices," said Kouroublis, who was ejected from the Pasok in June when he voted against new austerity measures.

Among other groups, the Democratic Alliance, led by former New Democracy deputy Dora Bakoyannis, has said it would work with any like-minded party to help steer Greece back to prosperity.

With just a few months to the ballot, these groups have little time to muster support among a population weary of a political elite dominated by dynastic houses with deep ties to business, unions and other interest groups.

That has caused many voters to lose hope in politics. When asked who she will vote for in the election Vana Papadopoulou, a 65-year-old pensioner, said the choice was clear.

"Nobody. Nobody. Nobody," she said as she sat on a bench outside the 300-member parliament.

"I used to trust them, but not anymore. All 300 in there are dishonest. They are only becoming richer while we suffer." (Michael Winfrey and Renee Maltezou, Reuters)