Greek pro-bailout parties set for ruling majority

Greek pro-bailout parties set for ruling majority

Sun, Jun 17 18:10 PM EDT

By Renee Maltezou and Harry Papachristou

ATHENS (Reuters) - Parties committed to a bailout saving Greece from bankruptcy were set to win a slim parliamentary majority on Sunday, beating radical leftists who reject the terms of the lifeline and bringing relief to a world braced for fresh financial turmoil.

The election result looked likely to yield a coalition government led by conservative New Democracy but leaves an emboldened SYRIZA bloc to rally angry opposition in the streets to the punishing terms of the bailout.

An official projection released by the interior ministry showed New Democracy taking 29.5 percent, with SYRIZA just behind on 27.1. The PASOK Socialists were set to take 12.3 percent of the vote.

Because of a 50-seat bonus given to the party which comes first, that result would give New Democracy and PASOK 161 seats in the 300-seat parliament, in an alliance broadly committed to the 130 billion euros ($164 billion) bailout.

Later, with 80 percent of the votes counted, New Democracy looked slightly better placed with 30.1 percent of the vote to SYRIZA's 26.6 percent.

If confirmed, it buys time for the euro zone, which was braced for a SYRIZA victory and the prospect of having to cut debt-ridden Greece loose, potentially unleashing shocks that could break up the single currency.
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June 17 (Bloomberg) -- Greece’s largest pro-bailout parties, New Democracy and Pasok, won enough seats to forge a parliamentary majority, official projections showed, easing concern the country was headed toward an imminent exit from the euro. The currency rose on the result.

The election would give New Democracy and Pasok 163 seats if they agree to govern together in the 300-member parliament, according to the official projection by the Interior Ministry in Athens based on 63 percent of today’s vote.

“For markets, a majority for an ND-Pasok coalition would be a relief,” Holger Schmieding, London-based chief economist at Berenberg Bank, said in a note today. “It would very much reduce the risk of a Greek euro exit.”

The vote forced Greeks, in a fifth year of recession, to choose open-ended austerity to stay in the euro or reject the terms of a bailout and risk the turmoil of exiting the 17-nation currency. The election threatened to dominate a summit of world leaders that starts tomorrow in Mexico.

Antonis Samaras’s New Democracy had 30.1 percent, or 130 seats, and Socialist Pasok took 12.6 percent for 33 seats, the projection showed. Alexis Tsipras’s Syriza, which advocated reneging on the terms of the bailout, won 26.5 percent, or 71 seats. Samaras called for a government of national salvation.

“The Greek people expressed their will to stay anchored with the euro, remain an integral part of the euro zone and honor the country’s commitments,” Samaras told supporters. “There’s no time to lose.”