THE SUNDAY TELEGRAPH: The stunning victory of the French Socialists and wipe-out of mainstream parties in Greece sent shock waves on Sunday night crashing throughout the continent of Europe.
François Hollande's election threws [sic] down the gauntlet to Angela Merkel, the German Chancellor, who has railroaded the eurozone into agreeing a new "fiskalpakt" treaty enshrining Germany's austerity doctrine.
The economic doctrine of austerity, to cut the burden of state spending to free up the economy, has ruled supreme with the support all of Europe's leaders, the European Union and financial markets.
But political leaders were on Sunday night conceding the consensus had been shattered beyond repair.
With Europe's economies plunging further into recession and as unemployment in the eurozone breaks record levels, voters demands for a new approach had finally become to great to ignore.
The popular backlash to EU imposed austerity to the centrist New Democracy and Socialist parties in Greece threatens the existence of the euro itself.
Greece is potentially ungovernable as a minority government must try and pass a new raft of austerity measures next month which are a condition of an EU-IMF bailout and Greek membership of the euro.
In France, while Hollande, the Socialist President-elect is a centrist, he is sitting on a powder keg of resentment at measures that his government will have to pass if it is not spark a meltdown of financial markets.
He has refused to ratify the treaty unless the eurozone and EU also sign up to a "growth pact". » | Bruno Waterfield, Devorah Lauter in Paris and Matthew Day | Sunday, May 06, 2012
THE HUFFINGTON POST: Greece Elections 2012: Nikolaos Michaloliakos, Extreme Right Leader, Warns Greek 'Traitors': ATHENS, Greece -- The leader of an extreme-right, anti-immigrant party on course for shock success in Greece's general elections Sunday lashed out at those he described as "traitors" responsible for the country's financial crisis and said his party was ushering in a "revolution." ¶ The far-right Golden Dawn party is set to win 7 percent of the parliamentary vote, according to early projections, as Greeks punished the traditionally dominant parties who backed harsh austerity measures tied to debt-relief agreements. » | Nebi Qena | AP | Saturday, May 05, 2012
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