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/ No clear winner in Greek Euro poll
/
MOST of yesterday's papers led with reports about Greece's Euro Elections,
in which the centre right New Democracy party took 36.9 per cent of the
vote. The ruling socialist party, Pasok, was three percentage points behind,
while the Communist Party of Greece was third with 8.3 per cent.
_Alithia
_ said there was no clear winner of the elections, even though New
Democracy took a bigger share than ruling Pasok, which had done well enough
not to have to consider early elections. With the exception of New
Democracy, all the other parties saw their share of the vote down compared
to the 1994 elections.
The paper noted that there was a lower turnout, 33 per cent abstention,
something which had influenced the result of the vote. Both the major
parties declared that they were satisfied with their respective share of
the vote.
_Haravghi
_ noted that Christian Democratic parties would have the majority in the
European Parliament. It also played up the fact that Greece's Communist
Party had increased its share of the vote from 6.2 per cent in 1994 to 8.3
.
The paper drew some positive conclusions from the Greek results, pointing
out that the total share of the vote attracted by left-wing parties was 60
per cent, compared to 40 per cent for right- wing parties. What was more
encouraging for the paper was the belief that the scope of left-wing
parties increasing their share of the vote in the future was significantly
greater than those of the right-wing.
_Simerini
_ in a front-page editorial used the elections as an opportunity to
criticise the European Union for being "a hostage of the emerging -- in a
dangerous and arrogant way -- American empire".
It said that the failure of the European partners to provide answers and
solutions to the social, economic and political problems of European
integration highlighted the weaknesses of the EU. It asked: "What kind of
Europe are we creating and what kind of Europe do we want? One that depends
on the US or one that is autonomous?"
_Phileleftheros
_ claimed that Turkey was preparing certain moves, apart from hardening its
stance, in order to prevent the planned Cyprus initiatives from producing
results. The source of the paper's information was Greece's Foreign
Ministry, which was studying ways of dealing with the situation.
Turkey was pursuing three objectives in an effort to thwart a new
diplomatic initiative: 1) to secure at least informal "acceptance of the
Turkish Cypriot political entity" by Muslim countries as soon as possible
2) to sign more bilateral agreements with the pseudo-state as part the
process of integration 3) to step up military tension.
_To Tharros
_ reported that Disy leader Nicos Anastassiades did not believe there would
be any adverse effects on the Cyprus peace efforts as a consequence of the
row between Cypriot parties and the US embassy with regard to the former's
anti-Nato stance over Yugoslavia.
_Politis
_ reported that a calendar published in New York by a travel company owned
by Cypriots had upset the Greek community as it was promoting a tourist
resort in Turkey. No Cyprus resort was included in the 12 pictures that
made up the calendar.
© Copyright Cyprus Mail 1999
