Follow us @ http://twitter.com/laurenlyster http://twitter.com/coveringdelta Welcome to Capital Account. This weekend we saw elections in Europe - the most important occurring in France and Greece. Although the former resulted in the ousting of Nicolas Sarkozy, who has been at the helm in France since the beginning of this crisis, the latter is arguably more important as it has shaken the foundation of EU and IMF-led reforms in the deficit countries. Greece has been the poster child for the Eurozone crisis. Its economy has contracted significantly since the onset of the crisis, miring it in a deep depressionthat has resulted in untold hardship for a great mass of the people, violent riots, and intense anxiety about the future of the country. The party that has presided over the country from the onset of this economic and social depression has been PASOK, whose leadership has chosen to negotiate with the country's creditors, the IMF and the EU, rather than unilaterally default and exit the single currency union that is the Euro. This has become an increasingly unpopular stance in Greece, as the terms of both bailouts negotiated with its creditors have widely been seen as detrimental to the country's economic and political future, deflating the domestic economy and replacing the country's former prime minister with a technocrat and former central banker. Throughout this entire process, the country's leaders have avoided calls for new elections amidst popular anger directed increasingly at the 300 members of Greek parliament, and in particular the two largest political parties of PASOK and New Democracy. Without access to the ballot box, many Greeks have increasingly turned to the street to protest, the results of which led to footage that has shocked much of Europe and the world - Burned buildings, violent riots, and even suicide. Sunday's election was in this sense, less about the electorate's vision for the future, and more about the uncorking of a cocktail of severe frustration, anger, and anxiety about that very same future that has become more unclear with every can of tear gas and smoke poured into the country's streets. What happened to the two main political parties in charge of the country during this crisis in the first election since the economic crisis began in late 2009? Take a look. In 2009 the two main parties got 77 percent of the public's vote...on Sunday, just over 32 percent. Ideological fringe parties have gained a large percentage of the vote, and one in particular, the Neo-Nazi party "Golden Dawn," has garnered enough of the vote to seat 21 of its own members in the parliament for the first time. This video has been circulating in some western media of a Golden Dawn press conference... It showsan organizer shouting at journalists to stand up of for the party leader orleave...looking authoritarian. Is the rise of this kind of movement a threat? We've seen the rise of nationalist movements in a number of eurozone countries. It seemsthat the only thing that is not clear in Greece, after these elections, is what sort of government, if any, can form from such a disparate group of partiesthat now all have seats in parliament, but none of which has a clear mandate from the people. The only common message, it seems, is that the Greek people are fed up with the status quo, with the policies of the past, and are prepared to jettison their traditional allegiance to the two major parties that havegoverned the country since the fall of the Hunta 4 decades ago. The parties that have received the most support will have to try to put together a coalition to govern. If a governing coalition cannot be formed from these disparate parties, a caretaker government must be put in place, and the country will hold elections again. All this taking place amidst a much larger financial crisis that has some banks now raising the specter of a greek exit from theeurozone, and all that this entails for monetary union and the economic andpolicy future of the Eurozone. Lauren speaks with Matina Stevis, reporter for the Wall Street Journal and Dow Jones Newswires from Athens, Greece.

• published: 07 May 2012
• views: 24302