The Greeks Head to the Polls, Many Saying ‘Enough’
By SERGE SCHMEMANN

ATHENS — Driving along a broad avenue lined with restaurants, the Greek man at the wheel points to the trash cans. Every night, he says, people rummage through them for scraps of food. His two well-educated daughters cannot find jobs; more than half of Greek youths have no work, and the jobs that do appear are often short-term and lacking in benefits.

Such stories of misery are legion after six years of economic crisis — including stories of suicides, of housewives turning to prostitution. Listening to them, the only surprise in the rise of the left-wing Syriza party, which is expected to come in first in Sunday’s general election, is that it has taken so long for an anti-austerity party to come to the fore.

Alexis Tsipras, Syriza’s charismatic 40-year-old leader, has been campaigning under the banner “Hope is on its way.” He has vowed to undo the austerity program mandated by the troika of international creditors — the European Commission, the European Central Bank and the International Monetary Fund — and at the same time to somehow reduce the country’s debt and remain in the eurozone. Fulfilling these contradictory promises may not be possible, but to a lot of people that’s not the point — voting for Syriza is another way of saying “Enough.”

The incumbent prime minister, Antonis Samaras, has insisted that the radical left wants to drive Greece out of the euro, and that the only path for Greece is to stay the course of painful reforms and budget cuts that he has led.

Recent opinion polls showed Mr. Samaras’s center-right New Democracy party only four to six percentage points behind Syriza. So even if Syriza does come in first, it will probably need a coalition to form a government. Given the variety of parties and passions likely to come out of the elections, the next government may not be around for long.

All this makes for a frightening welter of unknowns as voters approach decision time. If Mr. Tsipras goes ahead with his promise to cut taxes and restore social spending without finding new sources of funding, the “troika” bailout could be cut short. Without the bailout, Greece would face the risk of a default on its massive sovereign debt. And failing to meet its debts would raise the possibility of a “Grexit,” a Greek exit from the eurozone.

Though Chancellor Angela Merkel of Germany, who has the decisive say in what demands to make of Greece, insists she wants Greece to remain in the eurozone, the possibility of a Greek exit is no longer regarded in Berlin and Brussels as necessarily an unmitigated disaster.

For the Greeks, however, it would be, most likely plunging the country into recession, and the large majority of Greeks want the country to remain in the single currency.

In any case, Mr. Tsipras has given signals that he may be open to a more sensible course than his radical party platform. Polls show that a strong majority of Greeks, 61 percent, want consensus in talks with the troika, and the optimistic scenario is that his left-wing credentials would give him the credibility to urge more patience.

Another question is whether Berlin and Brussels really mean their tough talk about Greece. Mrs. Merkel repeated in her keynote speech at Davos that Greece must accept responsibility for its mountain of debt. But there seems to be a growing sentiment among economists in Europe that debt relief is essential to bringing the Greek economy back from the depths. Whether Greeks “deserve” punishing austerity after years of profligacy, as many in northern Europe continue to maintain, is not the right question. The question is how to allow Greece to move forward and to avoid a political catastrophe that would inevitably have ramifications for the rest of Europe.

Mr. Tsipras or whoever wins Sunday’s election must understand that there is no easy, painless exit out of Greece’s troubles. But Germany and the troika must understand that sticking with their flawed and dogmatic insistence on austerity can only create more misery and desperation — and a more radical response next time.

希臘準總理高姿態：不先見梅克爾

開車的希臘男子對寬廣大道兩旁的餐廳視而不見，他的目的地是到垃圾桶翻找食物。男子說很多人每晚都來這裡尋寶。男子的兩個女兒有高學歷卻找不到工作，希臘年輕人半數以上失業。就算有工作，多半是沒有退休金的短期工。

紐約時報報導，類似的悲慘遭遇，包括尋短或家庭主婦下海，自希臘陷入經濟危機六年來，屢見不鮮。反撙節的「激進左派聯盟」（Syriza）崛起，被看好將贏得廿五日舉行的大選，並不令人訝異。

Syriza的領袖齊普拉斯年僅四十歲，競選口號是「希望即將到來」。他誓言要找回希臘尊嚴，翻轉撙節措施，外債減半，並留在歐元區。這些競選支票兌現機率很低，但忍了六年的希臘選民根本不管這麼多，他們只想用選票表達「我們受夠了！」

五十九歲男子李佐斯廿二日參加Syriza的造勢活動，有三個小孩的他兩年前失業。他說很多人把希望放在該黨，即使結果充滿未知數。他說：「我們不知道齊普拉斯能否減少債務，但希望他至少讓狀況好一些。」

眼見勝利在望，齊普拉斯已開始以準總理之姿擘畫施政藍圖。他廿三日表示，根據歐洲央行的量化寬鬆購債方案，七月才會討論購買希臘公債，因此未來該黨領導的希臘政府將到七月才會與歐盟及國際貨幣基金討論紓困方案，而非原訂的二月底。

另外，被問到上任後的首次官方會面是否會見德國總理梅克爾，齊普拉斯否認，表示計畫先訪問塞浦路斯。他說：「我看梅克爾和歐盟另外廿八位領袖沒太多不同。會談必須是歐盟層級，我們有支持者。」

選前最新民調顯示，執政的新民主黨落後Syriza約四至六個百分點。總理薩瑪拉斯表示，改革和撙節雖然痛苦，卻是解救希臘的唯一途徑，且即將開花結果，苦勸選民撐住。

薩瑪拉斯批評對手說：「他們將讓希臘和整個歐洲為敵，他們不懂也不信任歐洲。」

大選投票將於當地時間晚上七時（台灣時間廿六日凌晨一時）結束。

原文參照：
http://www.nytimes.com/2015/01/24/opinion/the-greeks-head-to-the-polls-many-saying-enough.html

2015-01-25 聯合報 A13．國際．編譯莊蕙嘉