Greece and Europe have gained some breathing room — but not much — after Sunday's parliamentary elections in Greece. A victory by the conservative New Democracy (ND) party offers hope that the country will support a government that backs the existing austerity program, permitting Greece to stay in the eurozone and preserving the European Union.
Unfortunately, the election results merely offer hope for those outcomes. The vote itself, like the May elections before them, reveals deep divisions that threaten to undermine Greece's future. Moreover, the broader challenge of reconciling national economic policies with regional economic constraints is only more pressing.
Greece first held parliamentary elections in May in an attempt to forge a mandate for a government that could support the EU-International Monetary Fund-imposed package of spending cuts and tax increases that have plunged the country into one of the fiercest economic situations in the postwar era. Greece is now in the fifth year of a recession that is expected to endure for at least another 12 months. The economy contracted at an annual rate of 6.5 percent in the first quarter of 2012, and is expected to shrink 5.0 to 5.3 percent this year. Unemployment is approaching 22 percent.